


Every Beautiful Thing

by lovesheavyburden



Series: Beautiful Here [2]
Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-01-27 20:44:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1721987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovesheavyburden/pseuds/lovesheavyburden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fort Pulaski became their home; they have clean water, a limited but fulfilling food supply, and a lighthouse that Beth sees as her personal beacon of hope. But Beth's bored with the babysitter routine, and sharing a bedroom with Carol is beginning to concern her. Can Daryl provide her the escape she needs? Can love save you when you're lost? Sequel to Beautiful Here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Every Beautiful Thing

What a beautiful face I have found in this place  
That is circling all 'round the sun  
What a beautiful dream that could flash on the screen  
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me  
Soft and sweet, let me hold it close and keep it here with me

 And one day we will die and our ashes will fly  
From the aeroplane over the sea  
But for now we are young let us lay in the sun  
And count every beautiful thing we can see  
Love to be in the arms of all, I'm keepin' here with me

 -In the Aeroplane over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel

* * *

 

 A dusting of frost sat on the unshorn blades of grass, bowing them at the root, but didn’t flatten them to the earth. The early part of winter had brought comfortably cool temperatures to Cockspur Island, but not a single person had seen a single flake of snow. Life was beginning to settle behind the walls of Fort Pulaski; antique beds left behind as examples of life at war were repurposed for Rick’s group, and new mattresses were found for each bed. The beds were set up in the officer’s quarters, formerly called the gorge, and most rooms had only one or two people in each. The beds that had been used by Civil War soldiers were large enough to fit a full-sized mattress in them without a problem, which helped create the feeling of being at home for those who had gone so long without a safe one.

The group also set up couches and tables in several of the casemates; large open rooms with arched ceilings and openings where the cannons would be aimed. They made the place feel as inviting and homelike as possible, even going as far as to install a wood-burning stove in the room. Puzzles from the gift shop were set up on tables, and at the end of the hall were shelves of library books on a pretty limited selection of topics, but they were books, and it was something to read.

A fire pit had been built near the old prison, and the prison itself had been transformed into a dining room; not that there was much in the way of food, other than the things that Rick, Carl, and Daryl hunted up, and some of the dry goods the scouts brought back. Last week they found a grocery store with a few ten-pound bags of rice that were still good. They thought they could ration it out to last for a couple of weeks, but they needed more; they needed more of everything.

The deer were plenty, but they were beginning to distrust the people who now inhabited the island. In the first two weeks, Daryl had shot a deer a day; they had stood near him as he crept closer. Now, in their third month together, the deer were more aware of Daryl’s scent, and they proved a challenge for him to hunt. It wasn’t an impossible challenge, but it was becoming harder and harder to rely solely on deer.

Carl and Rick had been the first to start fishing in the moat. Hector joined them, and began to develop a close friendship with the younger youth. They found decent sized fish that greedily ate the bait in the moat. They also found clams and mussels when they dragged the bottom of the moat with two kayaks and a net behind them. The night they found the muscles the group decided to host a clam bake, feasting and gorging themselves on the soft flesh inside the shells. They had talked and laughed into the early hours of the morning, and they had been in high spirits the rest of the week.

They were able to utilize water from the cisterns that had collected rain water. They positioned a wood stove just outside the cistern room, and rebuilt some floors to install some antique bathtubs without holes for faucets or knobs. The hours just after dusk were reserved specifically for baths, though since almost everyone was an adult, if they chose another time they ran the risk of being disturbed while bathing. Some days, some people needed a daytime bath, or a chance to wash up. For the most part, people knew when someone was going to be using the baths outside of the dusk time-frame. They knew that Daryl would wash up after he went hunting, and everyone had seen Glenn fall into the moat when the water was nearly freezing, so people tended to stay away from the cistern room during those times. The day they had spent most of the day mowing grass with a push mower and building a fire pit for food, almost everyone started bathing just after dinner. Some nights, the men would bathe at the same time, and the women would do the same. For the most part, they were all able to keep clean and hygienic.

Beth’s shoulder healed. Partially from the access to clean water, and a stock-pile of anti-bacterial soap, but also because Hattie had the ability to help people heal. The first month, Hattie had used a combination of birch sap, and table sugar to help her wound heal after she had fixed the sutures Daryl had sewn into her skin. Hattie had complemented Daryl’s work when she had found out that he had been the one to sew her up. The second month she started physical therapy with Bob, and by the third month, Beth was able to lift her arm above her head again. Bob had the medic skills the group needed, and Hattie had been a midwife and interested in alternative medicine before the world ended, so she was aware of the natural cures when they didn’t have access to traditional medicine.

She was still a little stiff, but it didn’t hurt to hold Judith any longer, and she started to think about asking Daryl to take her out on hunts soon. She wanted to keep learning how to hunt from him, even if it had been a long while since the last time she had been able to hunt. It had been a long time since she had a moment alone with him.

* * *

Beth walked the terreplein; the flat, grassy roof above the fort. The sun had set, the lighthouse light was lit, and she could hear a couple women bathing in the cistern room; it sounded like Tara and Rosita. Beth had bathed with Judith just a while before, and she put the little girl to bed in Rick’s room before she went to enjoy the cool evening air in her favorite spot in the fort. She changed into a clean set of clothes and put a warm woolen coat on over her shoulders. While the daytime high was in the upper forties, the night air was cool, and breezy.

The first night they spent in the fort, they were alarmed when a beam of light shot across the sky into the deep blue sky above them. They grabbed their guns, and prepared for an attack until Daryl climbed onto the terreplein and saw that it wasn’t someone coming for them, but a lighthouse illuminating the coast of Cockspur Island. It wasn’t much as far as lighthouses go, but Beth loved it. It was a small, white cylinder shooting up out of the Savannah River with a door and a single window that she could see from her spot on the terreplein. There was a balcony around the light, so that the keeper would have access if something went wrong. She couldn’t see how anyone could get into the lighthouse, though, because the door seemed to be several feet above the level of the river, even in high tide. She wanted to make it to the lighthouse to explore and investigate, and to have a place to call her own; a place that wasn’t shared with everyone else who lived in the fort.

Beth’s favorite spot was at the rear of the fort, on the terreplein; it had a perfect view of the lighthouse. At night, the solar-powered light lit up the shoal, casting light on the broken bits of shell, which glittered and sparkled for only a moment before they disappeared into the darkness again. She could hear the waves crash, and the salty, humid air wrapped around her shoulders like a comforting hug. It reminded her of her mother; her warm embrace used to bring her comfort whenever she needed it.

“I shoulda figured I’d find you here.” Beth grinned and turned toward Daryl.

“Hey, Daryl.” She drawled out slowly, her grin never wavered.

“Hey, Beth.” His lips quirked into a fond smile, as he came to stand beside her.

They stood together quietly for a while, watching the light spin out into the clear distance, and then swing back to bring the stars to the shore. They hadn’t had any time alone together for weeks. Daryl had been busy as he helped transform the fort into a sanctuary; he had gone on runs, and had been hunting for the group over the last three months. Beth had been making the fort their home; she had organized, cleaned, and prepared for everyone to have a place to live, and thrive, all on top of her duties to care for little Judith.

“Are you on watch tonight?” Beth asked. She spoke softly, not wanting to disturb the air around them.

“Mmhmm.” Daryl grunted in confirmation.

“Has it been boring?” Beth asked. She was usually asleep fairly early, except for nights like tonight when she felt like she couldn’t sleep.

“Mmm,” Daryl shrugged his shoulders and tossed his long, brown hair with a flick of his head.

“Do you think it’s still necessary?” Beth asked him, “That someone’s always watching?”

“Iunno. I guess.”

“But there aren’t any walkers on the island, and we haven’t seen any people. Not even at the Coast Guard station, you said.”

“Mmm, but don’t mean that’t’ll always be that way. We got here. The walkers Rick killed got here when they was people. Don’t mean others won’t give it a try some day, and we gotta be prepared.”

Beth sat down on the brick wall and turned to face Daryl, while still being able to see the light. “I guess I’ll join you for a bit then. Maggie and Glenn keep watch together, and I bet it’s more interesting with someone else.”

Daryl chuckled, “More interestin’… they aren’t stric’ly keepin’ watch.” He turned his blue eyes towards her as the spotlight passed over the pair. Beth could see heat in his eyes. Passion. Lust. Her breath caught in her throat, and her heart felt like it would explode from her chest. It seemed like the light remained on Daryl’s face for eons, stopping time for eternity just so she could see his face forever in her mind. She released her breath as the light beam pulled away from him.

Beth made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat and looked back out at the lighthouse. She had explored the eastern part of the island in hopes of finding a way to get to the lighthouse that lit up their night sky, but the trail ended where the water met the coast. The current was too strong for her to swim, and she knew that she wasn’t a strong enough swimmer to even make an attempt to cross.

Daryl hopped up onto the wall that lead straight down into the moat, and he looked at Beth intently. “Y’ all right?” He asked, “I know I ain’t been around much, but ya’ just seem to be keepin’ more to yourself. And that’s sayin’ somethin’ ‘cause when we was out there we didn’t even talk till the ‘shiner shack, and ya’ were still pretty out there. Things still bad with Maggie?”

Beth looked up at Daryl in surprise, but her surprise gently faded away into a smile. She sat next to him on the wall, with her back towards her lighthouse, and she leaned into his side. “They’re okay. She’s trying to make up by spending a lot of time with me, and trying to play with my hair, and talk with me. Things sisters do, I guess.”

Daryl wrapped his arm around Beth. She leaned her head on his shoulder and inhaled the scent of him. He wasn’t one to spend time bathing, though he almost always washed up when he came back to the fort, and she could smell the scent that was distinctly Daryl. It was part sweat from his long walk around the perimeter, part sweetness, and part earth. She could smell hints of grass, leather, motor oil, and burnt wood, but none of the other scents jumped out at her with a name. All she knew was that Daryl’s scent was unique to Daryl, and she had never smelled anyone like him before. His scent reminded her of safety, and she felt secure around him whenever he was near to her like this.

“I guess I’m just,” she paused, thinking of the word she wanted to use, “I guess I’m just bored. I’m grateful that we’re safe, and I’m thankful that we have everything that we need to last us here for some time, but I’m bored, Daryl. I’m not ‘Beth the Babysitter’ anymore, and it’s hard going back to only taking care of Judith. Don’t get me wrong, I love her so much, and I want her to survive this, even longer than any of us do, but,” she sighed, “I just want more.”

She looked up into Daryl’s eyes and sighed, “Right now, I just have too much time to think, and not enough of an outlet, and sometimes I think about Len, and sometimes I think about the other guys, and I feel like I’m going crazy, and I feel like maybe we won’t be safe here, like I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Daryl followed her rambling with a nod of his head. He knew the feeling she was describing intimately. He knew the feeling of waiting around and waiting for something bad to happen, and he knew that wasn’t Beth. Beth before the fall of the prison was happy because she knew they were safe. Her foundation had been so horribly shaken that she was having a hard time going back to the way she used to be. A lot of them were, but Beth most notably. Daryl leaned his head against hers and let his arm slip around her waist.

“Maybe you get back to huntin’ with me. Maybe that’ll help give you somethin’ else to do. You can leave the baby and take on some other providin’ and get out of here for a bit.”

Beth nodded and placed her hand on Daryl’s knee. “I also wanna find a way to that lighthouse.” She whispered. “Maybe I’ll be happy once I can get there.”

“If that’s what you wanna do, I’ll help ya.” Daryl said. He gave a small smile at how close they were to each other. It had been a while since they had been able to be this close without eyes on them constantly. Carol was the worst. She watched Beth and Daryl like hawks, like she was trying to figure them out. Daniel was just as bad, and Daryl was sure that he was interested in Beth for more than just “Bible Study” conversations. Beth had no idea of his interest, but she wasn’t looking for any signs from him that he wanted more.

Beth looked up into his eyes again, and smiled. “I missed you when you were busy setting this place up.”

Daryl’s ears began to burn, but he nodded that he felt the same. He could feel his stomach doing somersaults, and for the first time he felt nervous, but not scared. He began to close the distance between them, his nose an inch away from hers. Their eyes were still open, and Beth’s hand was still on Daryl’s knee. She nodded, and her eyes fluttered shut as he moved to kiss her on the mouth.

“Everyone’s wonderin’ who’s up here with you.”

Beth and Daryl sprung apart at the sound of Rick’s voice. Daryl brought his hands to himself, as did Beth, and they instinctively scooted a couple inches away from each other.

“What?” Beth asked, “What do you mean?”

“Your shadow’s are being cast on the gorge, and since everyone knows it’s Daryl’s watch, they were wonderin’ who’s up here with him. I’m kinda surprised it’s you, Beth. I think everyone was thinkin’ it was Carol.”

“Oh. Urm. I just had some dirt in my eye. Daryl was helpin’ me get it out. Right, Daryl?” Beth said. Daryl grunted and jumped back down onto the terreplein. He picked his crossbow up and walked away without looking back at Beth.

Beth frowned. She hadn’t wanted him to leave, but he had, and she supposed she would need to leave as well. “He, uh, got it out. I’m gonna go to bed now. G’night, Rick.”

 “’Night, Beth.” Rick watched as Beth walked in the opposite direction from Daryl, and saw her head towards the bedroom the young woman shared with Carol. He wasn’t certain what was happening between Beth and Daryl, but he knew he’d need to keep an eye on them for the time being. Everyone was certain that Carol and Daryl had something of a connection, and Rick knew that Daryl wasn’t the type to play women, but he’d just need to keep an eye out to make sure that everyone was happy and okay.

Rick had allowed Carol back into the group, partly in thanks that she had helped Tyreese care for his daughter, and partly because Daryl had asked for her to be allowed to come back with them. They were family, he had said to Rick, they started out together after everything fell and he didn’t want to lose anyone else. Not anymore. Rick agreed with him, and he allowed Carol back in on the condition that she didn’t make any more decisions for the group on her own, and that she take a step down from the council for the time being. He wasn’t sure that would solve anything, but Rick was willing to give her another chance now, based on Daryl’s recommendation.

Rick stood watching the lighthouse beam rotate around, out toward the mouth of the river, and back towards Fort Pulaski. He was grateful everyone was safe, now he just wanted to be sure that everyone was happy.


	2. The Fastest Way Back Home

I should have seen you coming, I should have been prepared  
After all, getting half of what you wish for isn't so rare  
But still I wasn't ready, you took me by surprise  
You brought a light to my dark like a word from the wise

We fell in love in the summer, when the skies were clear  
But I'm still wearing my coat from winter last year  
I need to set my house in order, confess and cover my sins  
I need to make a home for you before inviting you in

Weather wears the mountains right down into the sea  
So I will stand in the rain until I am clean  
Rivers carve the country, a landscape shaped by a stream  
So I will swim in the river as long as you need

 -The Fastest Way Back Home, Frank Turner

* * *

Beth’s eyes fluttered as she slowly woke and regained consciousness. The morning light slipped in through the windows that looked out onto the porch and parade grounds. Beth was frequently an early riser, but Carol was always up earlier than she was out of habit, and out of necessity. She had also admitted to Beth on the first night they shared the room that she didn’t sleep very well, but that she was quiet, and wouldn’t wake Beth if she could help it.

Beth had said that Carol’s sleeping patterns wouldn’t be a problem as long as she were comfortable. Beth had shared her room with Aunt Patricia after Uncle Otis died, and the grieving older woman kept her awake most nights with her sobs. Beth had a big heart, and she didn’t mind, but she couldn’t care for Judith with the amount of sleep she had when her aunt shared her room.

So far, Carol and Beth’s living situation had worked out. Carol was out the door long before Beth was awake, and Beth was asleep long before Carol returned to the room. Carol made sure to bring firewood for the wood stove, and Beth made sure the fire was stoked. Beth kept the room clean, and Carol helped to make it pretty by bringing back little trinkets she found. Their room was the nicest, and it had a couple little chairs in a sitting area near the stove, and a table in between them. Maggie would sometimes come over during the day, and sit with Beth while she cared for Judith or mended someone’s clothes.

Beth could hear Carol moving around in the bedroom. A new log was added to the fire, and Beth could already feel the warmth spreading around the room. She reached her arms over her head, stretched, and slowly opened her eyes to find Carol sitting on the edge of her bed, her knife clenched in her fist.

Beth gasped and sat up quickly, watching Carol as she stared intently at her blade. The older woman rotated her fist, and watched the blade as it twisted into imaginary flesh.

“Carol?” Beth asked, her voice a quiet gasp.

Carol looked up at the young woman with a confused look on her face. She then looked back down at her knife and at how hard she was clenching it. “Oh. Sorry to frighten you. The handle broke yesterday, and I’m trying to repair it until I can get another knife. I was putting tape around it, and hoping that it would hold if we ran into some walkers on the way to get a new one. It doesn’t fit in my hand quite as well as it did before.”

“When are you making a run?” Beth asked, as she stepped out of bed, and slipped her feet into her shoes. She shivered, and drew her coat around herself.

“Later this morning. Tyreese, Michonne, Abraham, and I are going back out to see if we can find more food, and bring back anything else people need.”

“You can borrow my knife.” Beth said, going to her shelf and digging through her bag. “I’m not going to need it today.”

“You sure?” Carol asked, standing up to stand behind Beth.

“Pretty sure. It’s not like I go outside the fort, really.” Beth said with a frustrated sigh. She clasped the handle, pulled it out of her bag, and flipped it, giving the hilt to Carol. It wasn’t like she didn’t want to go outside the fort, but she never had the opportunity, or the supervision Maggie and Rick required her to have when she wanted to go outside for a walk.

Carol looked at it for a minute, and smiled as she let out a little huff of a laugh. “This Daryl’s?”

Beth blushed and looked away, “Well, it might have been. I took it from him after the prison, and I never gave it back. He’s got a new one, and basically told me I could keep it. I want it back.”

Carol chuckled and nodded, slipping the knife into her sheath. “I promise you’ll get it back.”

Beth nodded and went to look out the window to see what the weather looked like today. It seemed colder. She could see a few people walking to the fire pit to start making breakfast for the masses. They were in winter coats brought back for them by some of the scouts. She could see Tara and Sasha with thick socks on under their boots and scarves wrapped around their necks. Eugene was up this morning as well, and he found a winter cap to throw on over his head. Daryl carried in a few squirrels and a bird from the woods just outside the fort. Beth’s ears turned pink, but she also became nervous because of the way their interaction ended last night. She wasn’t sure if Daryl was mad at her for not telling Rick the truth, or if he was even ready to talk to the man he considered a brother about where they were, and where they might go as a couple in the future.

“I’m going to ask you a question, but you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” Carol said, not looking at Beth. She pulled her socks on, and stuck her feet into her boots. “What’s going on with you and Daryl?”

Beth turned away from the window, shocked that Carol was asking her this question. First, she didn’t know how to answer the question, and second, she was concerned that Carol would be angry because she knew that Carol had something with Daryl previously, or so she thought. She’d never really asked Daryl about it, but everyone whispered about how close they were at the prison, and Beth had been able to see it with her own eyes as well.

“I, uh, don’t know what you’re talking about.” Beth said, looking away from Carol.

Carol walked up to Beth and put her hand on her chin. “I told you that you didn’t have to answer, but don’t lie to me.” She made Beth look her in the eyes, “I’m not going to ask you again, but it would be best for you to remember to not lie to me when I ask you things in the future.”

Beth’s eyes went wide; was Carol threatening her? The older woman opened the door and walked out, letting the cool air from outside into the warm room. Beth watched her walk towards the breakfast crew and help them begin setting up for breakfast.

* * *

After breakfast, Rick was relaxing with Carl and Judith in the living area, and Beth sat near them and having a discussion with Maggie, Glenn, and Daniel about religion. Glenn had been raised Christian with his family. They went to a Korean-Christian Church in Michigan when he was a child, but when he moved to Atlanta he stopped attending church altogether.

Daniel asked the family about beginning Church services every Sunday for the believers in the group. Beth knew that Rick and Carl had been Churchgoers, as had Michonne, Carol, Sasha, and Tyreese. Daryl would sit on the perch sometimes while her daddy read from the Bible, but she had no idea if he had believed in God or not. He had always let them perform the services they wanted to participate in, and he had frequently watched, but didn’t mind taking guard duty from someone if they would rather attend services.

Beth enjoyed having Daniel with them, and she knew Maggie did too. Together they prayed with Daniel for the safety of the group, and the health of their family. They read passages from the Bible that gave them hope that God was still there for them, and that this disease was not a punishment of their sins. Together, they came to terms with the deaths they had suffered as a family, and they began to heal the scars of seeing their father murdered before their eyes.

The Greene sisters needed someone like Daniel to help them heal, and Beth began to feel like there was hope again. She startled less when someone grabbed her by the arm, and she didn’t carry the same weight as when they reached the fort. He told her that God would forgive her for killing the man who attacked Carl, because she had killed in self-defense.

The conversations eased her guilt, and she began to have a friendly relationship with Daniel. He was older than she was; perhaps in his mid-thirties. The Pastor had told her some of the things about his life before, like the fact that he had a wife and a child that had been lost at the beginning, and he had questioned why God was punishing him. She appreciated his candor, and his willingness to share that information with her. It made her feel like he was someone she could trust, and it made her feel better about her own questions of doubt.

They had finished the discussion about church services, and were idly chatting about other things in their lives; the alligator they had seen near the coast, who sunned itself when the weather was nice, exotic pets they wouldn’t mind having and domesticating someday, the future.

They were in the middle of a humorous conversation when Beth felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around with a smile to find Daryl clutching his crossbow in front of his chest. He shuffled from foot to foot, and looked at her through his bangs. Beth thought he looked nervous as he spoke with her.

“I’m goin’ out. Since you don’t have Lil’ Asskicker, you wanna come?”

Beth grinned and nodded. “Yeah. Let me grab my winter boots and I’ll meet you at the drawbridge.”

She ran to the room she shared with Carol and grabbed her boots. When she reached for her knife, she remembered that she had lent it to Carol for the day, and didn’t have it. Carol had left hers on the table, and she imagined that the other woman wouldn’t mind her using it for the day, especially since she had hers and had threatened Beth that morning. Beth was still confused about Carol’s attitude, and she wasn’t sure who she should talk to about it, or if she should even mention it. She imagined speaking to Carol would be the best course of action, but at that moment, Carol intimidated the young woman.

She stuck the broken blade into her pocket and ran out the door, eager for a walk with Daryl. They would finally get to spend some time together without peering eyes from everyone else.

* * *

They walked to the white bridge that led onto the island. The road from the fort to the bridge was no more than half a mile long, but this area of the island felt isolated from the fort. They cut across into a patch of trees that Daryl hadn’t been to in a few days and began to walk quietly in search of dinner.

“Here, you wanna give it a shot?” Daryl asked, holding his bow out for Beth to take. She smiled and took the bow from him, much like she had the first time, and began tracking like he had shown her months ago. They had a few lessons several months ago before Beth was hurt, but they hadn’t had the opportunity for Beth to practice again in some time. She slowly began to walk forward, observing the leaves, frost, and mud for signs of tracks. Beth noticed a few scrapes in the ground here in there, but she wasn’t sure what had made them. People had talked about an alligator that lived on the island, and she wondered if it were the tail that had made that zig-zag pattern, and if the thick dragged line down the center of the tracks was its belly.

“I was kinda pissed at Rick last night.” Beth said softly as she crept forward; she kept her voice low to avoid startling any animals that might have been in their general area.

“Yeah?” Daryl asked with a chuckle. “Me too. Someone’s always interruptin’ us.”

Beth giggled and nodded, “Yeah. Michonne, Rick, Carol, Hector, Carl… Any chance we get a minute alone, we can be pretty certain we won’t get to do more ‘en say hi.”

Daryl smiled and pulled Beth back by wrapping his fingers in her belt loop. He lifted the crossbow out of her hands and rested it upright at the base of a thick palm tree. Beth turned around and looked at him with a curious expression on her face, and Daryl gave her a smirk and said, “Hi.”

Beth broke into a grin and turned a bright pink, “Hi,” she whispered and wrapped her arms around him as she pulled him into a hug. Her arms went around his chest and she leaned her head onto his shoulder. She closed her eyes and breathed him in as his hands caressed the back of her arm, and her upper back. It was a position they had shared several times. The first time was back at the prison after Zach had died and Daryl had given her a comforting hug. Now, she took the hug as a connection to the man to whom she was closest.

“I gotta say that I didn’t pull you out here to say hi.” Daryl said. Beth could hear his voice rumbling in his chest, and she delighted at the feel of it as she pressed her cheek to his shoulder. She reluctantly pulled away and adjusted her coat as she looked up into his eyes. She was sad that he wasn’t interested in physical comfort, but she knew that he was a serious man, and that he was serious about hunting.

“I know. We’re out here to hunt.” She frowned slightly; her lips turned to a pout. Daryl caught her chin as she turned to pick up the crossbow, and she looked up into his eyes.

“Not really what I meant.” His blue eyes were squinted in the sunlight, but she could still read the meaning behind them. He wasn’t out here only to hunt. He didn’t bring her out here to bring back dinner. He brought her out here so he could spend some time with her on his own, without the chance of anyone interrupting them any time soon. They wouldn’t be interrupted until they were ready to be interrupted out here. A bubble of hope spread within Beth’s chest, and she could feel the fluttering of wings as she thought of their relationship. She took in a deep, shuddering breath as his eyes drifted down toward her mouth. She licked her lips, and watched as he mirrored her movements.

His pale pink lips shimmered with saliva, and the whiskers on his chin were longer than before. She wondered how the bristles would feel against her cheeks now. His short stubble had felt delightfully rough, but now the facial hair seemed softer and wispier, and she imagined that the hair would tickle as they embraced.

“Oh.” Beth said with a smile. “Woods are kinda becoming our spot, huh?” Her voice sounded deeper to her own ears, husky and full of desire.

Daryl looked at her with a smirk and he nodded his head. “Mmm.”

She looked up at him, and took the whole man in. Her attraction to Daryl was not only his physical appearance; yes, he had incredibly attractive arms, and what she had seen of his chest had been nice as well, but his whole demeanor around her was what drew her to him.

Daryl didn’t treat her like she was fragile; he treated her like she was capable of anything she planned to do. He saw her as more than the sweet caregiver to the infants and invalids; he saw her wild, stubborn side, and he let her lead where she wanted to go. He was kind to her. He thought of her, and brought her trinkets when he was out on runs. Two weeks ago, she had found a small necklace on her pillowcase, and she knew who had brought it for her by the way he smiled when she came to dinner and it glinted in the candlelight. Most importantly, he was honest with her, and he didn’t avoid telling her things because she was too young to know them; he didn’t treat her like one of the kids, like some of the others. He told her his thoughts, and when he was feeling comfortable, he told her his feelings.

Beth was the most beautiful woman Daryl had ever met, and some days, he couldn’t believe she’d be interested in a guy like him. Her heart was what called to him. While she could be hot-headed, and stubborn one minute, she was constantly aware of his emotional state. She could tell when he needed someone close, and when he needed space. She would give him what he needed, and often times, she encouraged others to do the same. She wasn’t afraid of his temper, and he knew that he needed someone on his side who wouldn’t flinch away from him when he shouted. She and Rick were the only people who could handle his self-imploding tendencies.

“So, you just gonna stand there lookin’ at me, or are you gonna kiss me?” Beth smirked. “Or, do I gotta kiss you?”

“Shut up, Greene.” Daryl said with a chuckle, as he leaned in to kiss her. Beth brought her arms up from around his waist to his shoulders, and moved in closer to him. His big hands rested on her hips, and he pulled her closer to him. He had to bend his head to reach her mouth, and she had to stand on her toes, but they managed to fit together comfortably.

Daryl’s lips were soft against hers; pliant and willing to be guided in the direction she wanted to take the kiss. He didn’t want to move too fast, but he also didn’t want to remain stagnant. He began kissing Beth with simple light pressure on her bottom lip, and she softly pressed her lips to his upper lip. They pressed slow, soft kisses on each other’s mouths for a moment before Beth moved and captured Daryl’s bottom lip with her own. She increased the pressure, softly squeezing his lip with hers, and eventually, she began to lick his bottom lip, begging him to let her in.

Daryl opened his mouth, and met Beth’s tongue on his bottom lip. Her mouth parted as well, and their tongues lapped gently against each other. His beard scratched more than she imagined it would, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. The way his mouth moved over hers made her feel the scratchiness over her lips, cheeks, and chin. She wondered how it would feel over other areas of her body; areas that began to tingle with a desire to be touched.

The older man increased pressure, and pulled Beth in closer. His arms tightened around her thin frame, and pulled her closer to him. Beth’s thigh slipped between Daryl’s legs, and she could feel his hardness through his jeans. It wasn’t the first erection Beth had ever felt, but it was the first time she had felt him respond to her this way. Her heartbeat raced, and she pulled back slightly. Daryl leaned forward to follow her. Their teeth clashed together, and both Daryl and Beth pulled back in a hiss.

“Sorry,” He mumbled, and moved to return to Beth’s lips.

She leaned back and looked up at Daryl, halting him before he could reach her mouth. She was nervous, and felt a little frightened by his attraction. She had dated Jimmy and Zach, but she hadn’t even gone further than kissing with either of them. She knew that she wouldn’t be stopping there with Daryl. She knew that he would wait for her until she was ready, but she was still nervous about having sex with the older man. He would be more experienced, and might think it stupid that she hadn’t had sex with anyone even though she was over eighteen and had two boyfriends during the end of the world.

“This is a little uncomfortable,” she said, coming up with an excuse to stop before they got too heated. “You have to lean over too much, and my calves are burning from standing on my toes. Let’s hunt up dinner, and head back. Maybe we could have a look at the visitor’s center. Maybe we could be alone there.” She needed time to get used to the feel of him, and the idea that they could be in a serious relationship. She needed time to relax and to feel comfortable exposing her most intimate parts to him. She also didn’t want her first time to be in the woods somewhere. Maybe she was building sex up a little bit, but she wanted it to be special with him.

Daryl was admittedly a little disappointed in himself. He felt like the whole situation could have been better planned, and if he hadn’t made the juvenile mistake of mashing his teeth against hers, she wouldn’t want to stop. He hadn’t had much luck in relationships throughout his life. He had been focused on survival from a young age, and after his father’s friend had assaulted him, he had felt like an abnormal freak and hadn’t wanted to be as close to anyone as he would need to be to have a relationship with them. Women would approach him in bars, and leave him their phone numbers, but he had thrown them away without even looking at the napkins they were written on. His brother bought him a prostitute for his thirtieth birthday, thinking that getting over the sex hang-up would help him, and then he could fuck as many women as he wanted.

The problem was, Daryl hadn’t wanted to be intimate with anyone until he and Beth had spent time together. He had tried with the prostitute, just so his brother wouldn’t berate him and call him a faggot or something, and he had sex with her, but it hadn’t been good. He hadn’t enjoyed it. With Beth, he enjoyed every moment they had together. He enjoyed holding her hand, and kissing her, and he had been surprised when he felt himself responding to the kiss. He had tried to not let his unfamiliarity with women show, but he knew that sooner or later Beth would find out. He didn’t want her to judge him based upon his inexperience.

“Yeah, alright. You track, an’ I’ll shoot. Next time, we’ll git some target practice in for you.” Daryl said, picking up his crossbow. He pointed to the tracks they had found on the ground earlier, and indicated that she should follow them.

Beth nodded and placed a kiss on his cheek. “That sounds good. Now, let’s hurry up and get dinner so we can get back to try to find a quiet place on our own.”

Daryl smirked and tried to ignore his blush, “Well, git on with it, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In appreciation for all of the views, comments, kudos and favorites, I've decided to upload the second chapter a couple of days early. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think!
> 
> I hope you enjoy.


	3. The Crane Wife #1, Part 1

I am a poor man, I have neither wealth nor fame  
I have my two hands and a house to my name  
And the winter's so, the winter's so long  
And the winter's so, the winter's so long

And all the stars were crashing 'round  
As I laid eyes on what I'd found

It was a white crane, it was a helpless thing  
Upon a red stain with an arrow in its wing  
And it called and cried, it called and cried so  
And it called and cried, it called and cried so

And all the stars were crashing 'round  
As I laid eyes on what I'd found  
My crane wife, my crane wife  
My crane wife, my crane wife

Now I helped her and I dressed her wounds  
And how I held her beneath the rising moon  
And she stood to fly, she stood to fly away  
She stood to fly, she stood to fly away

And all the stars were crashing 'round  
As I laid eyes on what I'd found  
My crane wife, my crane wife  
My crane wife, my crane wife

-The Crane Wife #1, The Decemberists

* * *

**PART ONE**

Beth and Daryl followed the tracks for nearly a mile before they realized something was strange. Beth thought that the tracks possibly belonged to an alligator, but when they left the shoreline and headed further into the woods, Beth began to feel suspicious. Daryl obviously felt the same way, because he pulled Beth back and began to lead the way as they followed the tracks further into the island.

"This is wrong." She heard Daryl say. He stopped and stooped low as he tried to decipher the tracks. "This is wrong. This shouldn't be here."

"What do you mean?" Beth asked, crouching next to him, looking at the tracks.

"Look closely, what do you see?" Daryl asked, squinting at her. He was her instructor in this moment. He wanted her to learn something about hunting and tracking, even though it had been the furthest thing from their minds moments ago.

Beth had been focused on following the single tracks in front of her that she hadn't realized what she was missing; the fact that her mind had wandered as she walked made matters worse. Somewhere, not much further back, the tracks had split. There were more tracks than the single one, and there was no chance of an alligator splitting into several alligators.

"It's not an alligator is it?" Beth asked, not even wanting to guess what it was that they were looking at.

"No. It ain't." Daryl said, pointing out five distinct marks. "Think carefully, where've you seen this b'fore?"

Beth looked down at the zig-zagged markings on the ground, and looked around her. It didn't take her long before she looked up and into the eyes of Daryl Dixon. "Walkers." She breathed out in a gasp.

"Yeah."

"Shit."

"Shit's right." Daryl said, standing up and looking around them. Beth stood with him. "There's at least five of 'em." He said, and Beth pulled out Carol's knife that had been hidden in her pocket.

"Where—" she began to ask and her eyes went wide as Daryl leveled his crossbow just over her shoulder.

"Get down." He shouted, just before firing. Beth ducked, and maneuvered herself around so she was facing the impending walker brigade. Carol's flimsy knife felt useless in her hands. She was used to the weight and heft of Daryl's knife, and the silver tape Carol had used to patch it up made the hilt fit imprecisely in her grasp. It was something though, and Beth needed anything she could get her hands on to defend Daryl and herself if she could.

She imagined that she would have used the knife for something simple, like cutting a rabbit out of a snare Rick and Carl had set up, or cutting the tip of a bolt out of an animal. She hadn't expected to be using her knife to defend herself and Daryl from the threat of the undead.

Daryl's aim was true for the first walker that had come ambling out of the dense wall of trees. He quickly reset his crossbow and fired again into the brain of the second walker. The third, fourth, and fifth came together and Daryl swung his bow, managing to bash the skull of one.

Beth jumped and shoved the blade of the knife into the skull of a tall male who might have been young and handsome at one point. His knees buckled, and he fell forward, jerking the knife Beth still held. The hilt fell off into her hand. She quickly threw it to the ground and turned the dead walker over. Daryl was stomping on the head of the last walker when she saw movement in the bushes behind him.

She grabbed the handless knife and ripped it out of the skull of the walker under her knees. The metal that held the blade in the handle, called a tang, rested outside the skull of the walker. It was too thin to grasp and pull with any real effort, so Beth grabbed the exposed blade. She felt her skin rip, and the warm gush of blood poured down her palm. With no care for her own bloody mess, she yanked the knife out and rushed at the walker encroaching upon Daryl. The blade was slippery in her grasp, both with the blood from the fallen walker, and her own blood. She had to adjust the knife a couple times before she finally got the blade into the walker's skull by pushing her up against the closest tree, the stench of her rotten flesh filled Beth's world.

Daryl came and made sure the walker was dead before he looked Beth up and down. He noticed the blood immediately. He dropped his crossbow and his eyes went wide. "Beth?" He stopped the question he didn't want to ask before it tumbled out of his mouth.

"I'm not bit." She said, pulling her hand up to show him. "I'm not bit. Look. It's from the knife."

The blade had split the palm of her hand, starting at the base of her wrist. The flow of blood down her wrist as she held her hand up straight made it look like she was wearing a scarlet glove. Daryl's eyes were wide as he looked at the bloody knife sticking out of the walker's skull.

"Did its blood get on you?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"What?" Beth asked. Walkers could only kill you if they bit you, right?

"Did its blood get on you?! Did your blood mix with its blood?!" Daryl raised his voice, shouting at her in concern. Beth immediately felt panicked. She had been fine earlier, but now, feeling uncertain of the effect of walker blood on her wound, Beth was scared. She felt light-headed, and her breath quickened.

"I don't know." She cried. "I don't know!"

"We gotta go." Daryl said, scooping her up into his arms. "Put your arm around my neck, and hold your other one up above your head." He said as he began a quick pace back toward the fort. Bob and Hattie could help patch Beth up, but he wasn't sure what the thought was about walker blood in human wounds.

Daryl remembered the AIDS Epidemic in the '80s; his health teacher in middle school told him about preventing HIV and AIDS transmissions between blood and body fluid. If people could die from a bite wound, or a scratch, from a walker, what would blood-to-blood contact do?

They cut off Hershel's leg when he was bitten. Would they cut off Beth's little hand? Would she forever be invalided to child care and household chores? Would she live? Daryl didn't want to think about losing her. He continued running as Beth slowly lost consciousness; her limp, bloody arm dangled lifelessly at her side.

He crossed the first drawbridge into the fort, and began screaming at the top of his lungs, "Bob! Hattie!" He ran through the maze of storage bunkers in the demilune and over the second drawbridge and into the parade grounds. Out of breath, he screamed once more, "Help her!"

Everyone came running. Daryl wasn't the type to scream without cause. Maggie was the first person out of the living area, and Bob and Hattie followed behind her. Most people kept their distance, but Rick and Maggie were right at Daryl's side.

"Beth!" Maggie screamed at her unconscious sister. She began to shake her gently when she noticed the blood on her hand. "What happened? What happened, Daryl?!" She didn't stop screaming.

Bob was beside Beth in seconds, and Hattie right beside her. They needed to know as well, but as professionals, they began looking at the patient before asking questions.

"Unconscious and no response." Bob said to Hattie, "Wound to the right hand; she's lost a lot of blood." Bob turned her palm over to have a good look at the wound, "It appears to be a laceration, and not a bite."

"Walkers." Daryl panted out. "There are walkers on the island. Her knife broke and she pulled it out of one's skull to kill another one. Their blood mixed."

Everyone froze. Those not directly involved with helping Beth moved closer to hear what Daryl had to say. Whispers repeating the words echoed around the parade ground.

"How?" Rick asked. Daryl knew his brother wasn't asking how it happened, or how he got her to the fort. He was asking how the walkers got onto the island. They had made sure all of the buildings they could find were empty within the first two weeks.

"The bridge. Guess we caused enough of a commotion going in and out that they followed us in. Their tracks started there. Is this a death sentence?" Daryl asked, pleading with Bob and Hattie to say no.

"I don't know. I've never experienced it before."

"Nor have I," Hattie said, looking the poor girl over. Hattie's hand was covered in blood where she placed pressure on the wound. "I don't know if this is like HIV; if it'll spread through the blood. We need to stitch her up though. Maggie, please go into my room and get my kit." Maggie was near hysterics. Hattie knew that she needed to give Beth's sister a task so she would stay calm and collected. If she did, she could remain around her sister as Hattie and Bob took care of her.

Maggie nodded and ran towards Hattie's room. The kit would have supplies for sutures, antiseptic, and dressings to keep the young, unconscious woman from getting an infection if the virus didn't kill her first. Hattie wanted to hope for the best, but survival was unlikely in this world.

Bob looked up and around at those that were standing behind them in shock. Carl, Glenn, Daniel, Sasha, Tara, Rosita, and Hector stood behind them with expressions of concern on their faces. Glenn wrapped his arm around Carl's shoulders, comforting the young man who saw Beth as an older sister. "Where's Eugene?" He demanded of them. The group knew that Eugene had been with them moments before and they were unsure of the scientist's location. Eugene had studied the virus. Eugene would have an answer for them.

Daryl looked up and over at the group; behind him, he could see Eugene's mullet as he attempted to remain unnoticed. "Eugene. Get over here!" Daryl barked the order. He was anxious and upset. He blamed himself for not realizing that the tracks were walker tracks sooner. He had been preoccupied with thoughts of Beth, and her lips, and the softness of her body pressed against him that he assumed they were safe and disregarded his hunting experience. He needed Eugene to tell him that Beth would be fine. He needed to know that the woman he loved would be alright.  _Love?_ He thought briefly, and knew that now wasn't time to analyze his feelings.

Rick watched the strange man attempt to go unnoticed, it was unlike him, because the man spent most of his time talking and hoping that people would notice him. Daniel grabbed the man's shoulder and pushed him forward, and Glenn did the same. "They need you." Hector hissed. Rick could see Eugene shaking his head, and he called out to the scientist.

"Eugene!" Rick bellowed. He didn't understand the man's resistance to coming towards Beth. He slunk towards them, his face turned towards the ground and he refused to meet Rick's eyes. "You know what caused this; is she going to be infected from walker blood?"

Eugene shook his head, "I don't know, Rick. I don't know anything."

"What do you mean?" Daryl asked, getting up from beside Beth and standing near Eugene. Rick stood beside him. "What do you mean?!"

Rick put his hand on Daryl's shoulder to calm the quick tempered man. "Eugene? What do you mean that you don't know anything?"

"I lied, Rick. I don't know the cause of the virus. I've not been in contact with D.C. I don't know anything. I don't know anything more than what you all know."

Maggie had come back out with Hattie's bag. She stopped when she saw Rick and Daryl confronting Eugene. "What?" She asked, her eyes wide. She looked at Glenn and saw him shake his head. She looked at Hattie, and she looked at Beth, and she felt so incredibly lost. She wished her father was here to keep Beth alive.

Rick held Daryl back from attacking Eugene. "You lied to everyone? Abraham, and Rosita?" Eugene looked back at the Latina woman and nodded sadly. Rosita's jaw clenched, and she gave Eugene a cold look. Eugene was surprised at her composure. He expected her to be incredibly angry with him when she found out. He knew that she would have eventually found out.

"I'm sorry!" He said to Rosita. "I'm sorry." He pleaded with Rick. "I had no choice. I was a high school science teacher. I had no survival skills, and the only thing I could do was build a compass out of a needle and penny batteries. There was nothing else I could do but lie."

"Come, girl." Hattie said to Maggie, ignoring the calamity around her. Bob was doing the same and keeping an eye on Beth's vitals. He had two fingers placed on her neck, monitoring her pulse and breathing. "I need to stitch your sister up."

Maggie brought her the bag, and handed it to Hattie. "We need to move her to a bed. Glenn, Carl, Maggie, will you help carry her to her room?" The three quickly sprung to action, and the five of them safely moved Beth to her bedroom.

Daryl watched the group move Beth to her bedroom, and saw Hattie holding pressure on her hand. "What good are you?" He shouted, pushing Eugene's shoulder. "You lyin' sack a' shit. You should be the one dyin'. Not her!"

"Daryl," Rick said, holding Daryl back. Daryl looked at Rick like he was betraying him. His blue eyes were wide and expressed a mix of fear and anger. Rick had seen this look from Daryl before, the first time he met the younger man. When Daryl found out that Rick had handcuffed his brother to the roof of a building in Atlanta, he had the same look directed towards Rick.

Eugene hung his head and nodded. "I know."

Rick knew then that how Daryl felt about Beth was more than friendship. Daryl cared for the younger woman so much, and now, she was going to be ripped away from him before he even had the chance to figure it out for himself. "Go to her." He said, "Go, be by her side. She's going to need you."

Daryl looked up at Rick pleadingly, and the leader nodded, "Go." He said once more. Rick leveled a cool look at Eugene, which promised a long conversation about the repercussions of his actions.

Daryl left, and quickly made his way to Beth's room, the first time he had ever had the courage to enter her shared quarters. Glenn held a sobbing Maggie who sat on the bed opposite Beth's. Carl sat at the table in the corner, his head in his hands. Bob and Hattie leaned over the supine blonde; Bob's fingers deftly moving over the young woman's hand in attempt to quell the bleeding.

"Daryl, stoke the fire." Hattie commanded as he walked closer to the girl.

He looked at the older woman in confusion. "Stoke the fire, Daryl. We are going to have to cauterize the artery in her wrist if we want it to stop bleeding."

Daryl raked the embers of the fire that should have been put out that morning, and watched as they turned a soft red again. He added another log, and watched as it began to ignite. He told himself that he would speak with Carol and Beth about putting a fire out when you weren't planning to be in the room later. He caught himself and prayed that he could tell Beth later.

"Is it done?" Hattie asked, looking over at Daryl. He nodded. "I'm going to need you to hold this in the fire until it's hot." She handed him a long knife, and Daryl stuck it into the embers. Daryl knew about cauterizing wounds. His brother had told him about it when they were younger, in the event that there was a wound his father inflicted that he couldn't get to stop bleeding. He had been lucky enough to never have to use the knowledge, however, and didn't envy Beth the pain she might feel.

The young woman was still unconscious. The bite of the suture needle didn't cause her any pain. He wondered if she'd feel the burn of the blade when it scorched her skin. In a way, he hoped she would, because that meant she would still be with him. The blade began to burn a red hot, and he took the blade away from the fire. It began to cool quickly, and he handed it to the woman, trying not to notice the blood on her hands.

"Have a seat, Daryl." Bob said, looking up at Daryl who hovered above the single person who opened him up and understood him, and hadn't sent him away. Daryl sat in the chair next to Carl, and he turned his head away when he heard the knife sizzle against Beth's blood-wet skin and a short strangled cry coming from the briefly conscious woman. Maggie sobbed harder, and his heart ached similarly.

* * *

"We need to erect a barricade." Rick said, pulling the remaining group together. Their strongest fighters were out on a run. Carol, Michonne, Abraham, and Tyreese were in Savannah gathering a few needed supplies, and Daryl, Glenn, Maggie, and Carl were with Beth in her bedroom while Bob and Hattie fixed her up. He'd have to go, along with Sasha, Tara, Rosita, Hector, and Eugene. He'd ask Daniel to stay back in case the family needed him, and so someone could tell the others what had happened if they didn't cross paths at the bridge.

He had a conversation with Eugene and Rosita about the situation. Rosita, while angry that the scientist had lied, told him that she and Abraham would have brought him with them even if he hadn't lied and told them that he needed to get to the capitol. She and Abraham were good people, and she knew that they wouldn't have left him to fend for himself in the heat of the Texan sun even if he hadn't lied about who he was. Eugene apologized again, and Rick decided that the conversation was finished for now. They had other things they needed to do.

Rick would have preferred to be with his family in Beth's room. He counted Beth as a daughter, and he wanted to make sure that she was fine. He wanted to be there with her in her last moments if it came to it, but as the leader of the group, he knew he had responsibilities that would take him away from his family. He couldn't imagine the feelings of loss that would come if she didn't make it; he couldn't imagine how empty their halls would be, and how broken Maggie would look. He couldn't imagine the look of anguish on his brother's face if Beth didn't make it.

Daryl was the one he was most concerned about. The look on his face when he brought Beth in would be forever ingrained into his memory. It was fear for someone you loved; if Beth didn't make it, Daryl might not find it in himself to carry on.

He set up a plan for a movable barricade; one they could easily open and close at the bridge, but still deter walkers from easy access to the island. Later, they could decide if removing the bridge altogether would be a better alternative. Currently, however, blocking the bridge was the quickest method to keep walkers out. It might not be impervious, but for now, it was their best option.

Rick went to his bedroom and picked up the sleeping baby. He went to Beth's room and stuck his head in. "Carl," he said in a hushed tone, and indicated that his son needed to come out. "I know you want to be with Beth now, but I need you to care for Judith. I'm taking the group out and we're going to make a barricade. Can you do that?"

His son had tears pooling in his eyes, but he nodded. "Dad, Judy can't lose another mom."

Rick sighed and closed his eyes in heartache. He pulled his son into a hug and kissed him on top of his head. "We're going to pray that she makes it through this. Daniel is going to be here. If you want to pray with him, go find him."

He knew his son's faith was wavering, it had been since his mother died, but he knew that Lori would have wanted him to have faith as an option in this world. Hershel would have wanted his daughters to have faith as an option as well. Daniel may worship differently than the Greene Patriarch, but it was strong enough for the family to latch onto when they needed it most. He thought that they would need it today.

He handed the sleeping baby over to Carl, and Carl held his sister with care. He looked down at her sweet, angelic face, and a tear splashed onto her shirt. Rick caressed his hair, and pulled him into another hug. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Hold down the fort." He said, and felt Carl nod into his shoulder, accepting that he was in charge until his father came back.

 


	4. The Crane Wife #1, Part 2

I am a poor man, I have neither wealth nor fame  
I have my two hands and a house to my name  
And the winter's so, the winter's so long  
And the winter's so, the winter's so long

And all the stars were crashing 'round  
As I laid eyes on what I'd found

It was a white crane, it was a helpless thing  
Upon a red stain with an arrow in its wing  
And it called and cried, it called and cried so  
And it called and cried, it called and cried so

And all the stars were crashing 'round  
As I laid eyes on what I'd found  
My crane wife, my crane wife  
My crane wife, my crane wife

Now I helped her and I dressed her wounds  
And how I held her beneath the rising moon  
And she stood to fly, she stood to fly away  
She stood to fly, she stood to fly away

And all the stars were crashing 'round  
As I laid eyes on what I'd found  
My crane wife, my crane wife  
My crane wife, my crane wife

-The Crane Wife #1, The Decemberists

* * *

**PART TWO**

Carl paced the floor of his father's bedroom, bouncing his crying sister on his hip. She cried and screamed, wanting the comfort of Beth, or her father. Carl had tears running down his cheeks. He knew he couldn't comfort her the way Beth could; he couldn't sing her songs, and he didn't have the same lightness of heart that allowed him to play with her freely. Carl was weighed down by too much of this world; Beth had a beautiful ability to bounce back and move on, and Carl vowed to learn to do the same, for his sister. Carl wanted Judith to grow up to be like Beth, and if Beth wasn't here to teach her, he'd have to do it for her.

His heart ached thinking of that 'if'; Carl had a crush on Beth at one point, the winter after they left the farm and moved from house to house trying to survive. He had been so young before the death of his mother, and love seemed like a possibility in this world. He had his parents to look too, and Glenn and Maggie, and he thought that he wanted that. That Beth was cute was another contributing factor, but now he saw her as a sister, and as a second mom to Judith, love was the furthest thing from his mind.

Judith screamed, and Carl held her tight and pressed his nose into her hair. He felt like screaming as well, but he knew that he couldn't scream; he needed to take care of his baby sister.

"C'mon, Judy." He pleaded with her, "Don't scream. Please, don't scream. Beth can't come." His voice cracked as he choked on the words. "Beth can't hold you, baby."

The door cracked open, and Carol stuck her head in. "Carl?" She asked softly. "Do you need some help with Judith?"

Carl looked up in surprise at the intrusion. Carol had been out scavenging that morning, and he imagined that the group wouldn't be back until much later, especially since the rest of the group was busy building a barricade on the bridge.

"Is Dad back?" Carl handed Judith over to Carol, who immediately began to rock her back and forth.

"No, just me. He sent me back thinking that you might need some help with Judith. The others are down at the bridge helping to build a fence to keep the walkers out. It's looking pretty good so far. They found plenty of tools at the coast guard station, and left over lumber to build a decent fence."

"That's good," Carl said. He wiped his eyes and tried to make it look like he hadn't been crying. "Have you seen Beth?" He asked around the lump in his throat.

Carol shook her head. "No. The door was closed, and I thought that it was best to let Maggie and Glenn have time with her."

Carl nodded, "I'm going to go check-in on her, and to see if they need anything." Carol nodded and soothed the still crying Judith.

* * *

Bob and Hattie had finished stitching Beth up, and dressed her wound in soft gauze. They removed her shoes and covered her with the blankets at the end of her bed. They grabbed the blankets from Carol's bed as well. Her breathing was labored, and she was still unconscious, but she was hanging on for the time being. They weren't sure how long it would last. They had left to clean up, but Bob assured Maggie that he would be back soon to keep an eye on her sister.

Daryl was reminded of patching her up after she was shot; she had lain unconscious like she was now, only then, it was just him attempting to keep her alive in a rat-infested hovel. Now, there were several people trying to keep her alive; two were medically trained, and the rest were family. If it weren't for the virus, Daryl knew Beth would have been fine, but because her blood had mingled with walker blood he was filled with uncertainty. His stomach twisted into knots as he worried about Beth.

Glenn and Maggie had stepped out of the room to pray with Daniel. Maggie needed the comfort and familiarity religion had brought her family. Daniel prayed with them, kneeling outside of Beth's room, their hands clasped together, joining them in a circle. He prayed for peace for Beth, and for her to heal without complications. He prayed that she would stay with them, and that her body would reject the virus that would turn her into one of those they had to kill. He prayed over Maggie's sobs, and over Glenn's sniffs into his shirt.

Daryl could hear them outside the bedroom. He sat beside Beth, keeping watch over her. He grasped her wounded hand gently, and leaned his head on the side of her bed. He didn't know why this happened. The last time he had seen his old knife, it had been fine. It should have still been fine. Beth had no need to use it. For the handle to fall off, and for nothing to be left of the handle but the tang, the knife would have to have seen heavy use.

He didn't pray. Daryl's brother had been the most religious of their family; the elder Dixon son found religion while behind bars. It was superficial and fake, but Merle had professed his devotion to the parole board, and occasionally went to church when it might be beneficial for him. Daryl's faith rested in Beth, herself. He believed strongly in her resiliency and goodness that he couldn't doubt her ability to get up from this and continue trudging along in this chaotic world they called their own.

He held her hand and he talked to her, softly, and about the most inconsequential things. He told her about the book he was reading, and how he was concerned that he might need to find some glasses because it was getting harder to read in low light. He spoke of Judith, and how she seemed almost ready to take her first step; wouldn't Beth be happy to see that? He talked about how he and Carl had recently started target practice in the fort's parking lot with paper targets tacked to trees. He said that Carl was getting better, but that Beth was the only person he knew who could get her foot caught in a bear trap and still manage to hit a moving target. He spoke the most he had ever spoken in one setting to Beth as she slept.

He didn't notice Maggie and Glenn standing in the doorway; their prayers finally lifted to the Grace of God. They watched Daryl as he whispered to Beth, his shaggy hair hanging low to cover his eyes, and the fingers of his left hand stroking the hair on his chin. They knew without a doubt just how much Maggie's younger sister meant to their friend. They had never seen him speak so quietly, and so seriously, with anyone else. Daryl had gone out on runs with both Maggie and Glenn, together and separately, and he never said more than a few sarcastic quips and directions to keep each other safe. He never talked about things like reading, or teaching Carl, or even his Lil' Asskicker with anyone other than Beth. He never used this soft voice when speaking with anyone besides her.

Maggie leaned into Glenn's side, grabbing his hand and holding on tight. She hoped that Beth would wake up and see the love this man had for her. She hoped God would answer their prayers to keep Beth safe. She sighed, her face twisting into a sad smile for the older man who was just learning how to love.

Daryl's head whipped up and over at the couple in the doorway. His eyes were wide, and his cheeks, ears, and neck turned dark red. He gently placed Beth's hand over her stomach and stood from his spot beside the bed. He tucked his hair behind his ear and headed towards the door with his head bowed and his eyes staring hard at the floor.

"I'll let you be with your sister." Daryl said gruffly.

"Daryl, no." Maggie said, reaching out to grab Daryl's arm as he attempted to brush by them through the doorway. "You don't need to leave."

"I'm gonna go check on things." He said, obviously making an excuse to leave and to avoid the way the couple was looking at him.

Maggie frowned, but let him go, and Glenn patted him on the back as he brushed by them. They walked into the room, and took up the space Daryl had left.

Daryl turned left towards his bedroom, located in the North Bastion. His room was separated from the group's living quarters by a curtain, but Daryl didn't mind. He had three windows, one looking north, one looking west, and the last looking south, that he could look out at any time and make sure that the fort was safe. It also gave him a better sense of freedom. Daryl had never liked feeling closed in. Four walls was sometimes too much. Sure, the room was a little cold, but the wood stove he installed helped keep it above freezing.

There was a cannon in his room, which took up more room than he would have liked, but it came with the fort, and it was difficult to move. Daryl pushed it up against the wall as much as he could, and he used a wheel as his headboard. Next to his bed, he had a small table; a candle, two paperback books, and a pack of cigarettes had been shoved there haphazardly. The paperback books were a couple old serial mysteries; one he had received from Andrea after he had been shot, and the other he had found in a convenience store on a run.

He had joked with Andrea that the book didn't have any pictures, because that's what they expected of an old, ignorant redneck. At the time, he played into his role of an uneducated, racist redneck because he knew that's what was expected of him, from the group and from Merle. While Daryl had never gone to college, or held a stable career, he had graduated high school, and it was the single fact that made him proud of himself. He didn't drop out, and he hadn't been expelled. He just hadn't done much after that. Daryl enjoyed reading when he had the time; he just rarely had the time to spend reading something new.

He collapsed on his bed, his boot clad feet coming to rest on his thick gray comforter. He realized he hadn't closed the curtain that made the fourth wall of his room, but he didn't want to get up to shut it. His hand went above his head, and he stared up at the arched ceilings and gazed at the tiles that had been scrubbed free of gunpowder residue during some renovation to the fort. He thought about Beth, and he thought about the last few moments he had spent with her. He thought about the kiss, and her promise to find them a quiet place when they came back. He hated that their kiss had been ruined by such a childish mistake that he should have known how to avoid. He wanted every moment with Beth to be perfect, and he hated that he was always so hesitant when it came to her. He wanted to be perfect for her.

He heard an infant gurgle at the entrance to his bedroom. He turned his head and found Carol standing just inside the curtain. She held Judith who chewed on a frozen washcloth. Their eyes met and she gave him a small smile.

"How is she?" Carol asked, rubbing the baby's back.

"Alive." He said gruffly. "She was exposed."

Carol sighed sadly. She dragged a wooden chair to Daryl's bedside, and sat down beside him.

"Rick told me that there had been a problem, and that walkers had come across the bridge. He said she was injured, but now how, and not that she had been exposed. Was she bitten?"

Daryl shook his head, "No."

"Thank God for small mercies."

"It was her knife." He said, "It broke, the handle came off, and she was savin' me from a last walker that snuck up on us."

Carol's face blanched. "Her knife?"

"I don't know how; it had been mine, and it was fine when I gave it to her. She ain't seen enough action to cause it to break like that."

Carol reached out and pulled a knife out of her sheath and laid it on the mattress beside Daryl's hip. Judith reached for it, and Carol leaned back, keeping the child away from the weapon. Daryl gently picked it up and looked at Carol for confirmation.

She shook her head, "She didn't have her own knife. She had mine. She had leant me hers because mine had broken. I'm sure she imagined that there wouldn't be any problems while she was out, and she grabbed a knife in the event that she needed it for something small. It would have held up to cut rope or kill a small animal."

Daryl sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed. He placed his head in his hands and rubbed his fingers over his eyes. "It doesn't make me feel better to know that it could have been prevented if she only had her knife."

"I can't make it better, Daryl." Carol said. Putting her hand on Daryl's knee. "I can't change what happened."

"I ain't askin' ya to." Daryl said, looking up at his friend. Pain was written across his face, and Carol knew that he was scared of losing Beth.

"You love her." She said plainly. Carol had felt amorous feelings towards the hunter in the months after her husband's death. It was motivated purely by lust and proximity. Had the world been normal and her husband had died, she imagined that she would have spent time at bars having flings with men she never had the chance to sleep with before she was married. She probably would have gotten into a string of relationships with emotionally abusive men, and would have put herself and her daughter into unhealthy situations. But they would have been her choice, and not a directive from her husband.

Being shot down by Daryl, who she had been drawn to because he had been emotionally unavailable had become a point of humor between the two of them. She would flirt, and he would become embarrassed. She would laugh at the way he tried to shove her away. Carol wasn't interested in him that way any longer, but she was very protective of the broken man she had come to know and love like a younger brother.

Daryl looked up at her and nodded slowly. He didn't think he could admit it to anyone else, but Carol knew him surprisingly well. She had an ability to read him like no one else, and she used that to her advantage frequently. He couldn't voice the fact that he loved her, but he did. He loved Beth, and he needed her to know it.

Carol grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently. "It's okay." She said softly, "You don't have to say it to me."

Daryl quirked the edge of his mouth into an appreciative half-smile, and he dropped his hand. "She just needs to wake up."

"Daryl?" A soft voice called at his curtain. Maggie stood there, her eyes puffy and red. She had been crying again. Daryl stood and looked at the brunette with concern. If it were any good news, she wouldn't be here in his room with tears running down her face.

"It's Beth… She's…" She started sobbing again.

Daryl ran from his bastion to Beth's bedroom in a sprint. Glenn was standing outside the door wringing his hands. Daniel stood beside him whispering something in his ear. Daryl caught the phrase, "Last rights."

"No." He said harshly, unbelieving that it was coming to this. "No." He repeated the only word he could say. Daniel wanted to read Beth her last rights, and Maggie was crying. Glenn was wearing frown-lines into his forehead, and his hands would soon twist off if he didn't stop gripping them the way he was. Daryl didn't want her last rights read; it was too much like giving up. She would make it, she had to make it. She couldn't be infected. She couldn't be turning into a walker.

Daryl couldn't imagine beautiful Beth with her golden hair and bright blue eyes turning into a snarling crawling mess with no thoughts other than to feed. He couldn't imagine her beautiful voice being replaced with moans, and groans, and gurgles as she choked on the blood of her victims. He couldn't imagine her eyes clouding over, like she was looking at the world through filmy windows. He couldn't imagine putting her down with a bullet to the head, and a "sorry, baby."

"Daryl." Glenn said, "She's running a fever, and she's muttering in her sleep. It won't be much longer before…"

"No," He whispered, he closed his eyes and braced his hand on the door. Quiet sobs began to wrack his body. His knees felt weak, and he gripped the door frame tighter. He looked at his bright, beautiful Beth being tended to by the care givers, through tears streaming down his face. Glenn placed his hand on Daryl's shoulder, and Daryl shook him off. Carol and Maggie watched the two men struggle until Glenn was finally in front of Daryl and he wrapped him in a hug.

Daryl sunk into the smaller man, grief overcoming him. Glenn nearly buckled under the weight, but he remained upright, keeping the older man on his feet. Maggie came to them, she caressed Daryl's hair and put her arm around Glenn's waist. Carol stood, holding Judith with one hand, and holding the other over her mouth.

* * *

"I need you to do somethin' for me." His voice was hoarse from the raw emotion he had shown earlier, and the contemplative silence he had fallen into after.

It was dark, and everyone was in their own beds, except Maggie, Glenn, and Daryl. Carol had opened their room up for the family to keep watch, and she sat in a chair next to Daryl while Maggie and Glenn slept. The fire in the wood stove crackled and cast a warm glow around the room. Carol could see the exhaustion in Daryl's face, but the grim determination to not lose a single moment with the only woman he would ever love.

Everyone had come to say goodbye; giving Beth kisses on her forehead, and promises to take care of Judith. Her sister sat beside her bed for hours, stroking her blonde locks and holding the wounded hand that brought her to this point. Rick and Carl brought chairs and sat beside Carol and Judith. They cried with the family, and Carl buried his head into his father's side. His heart was breaking for another friend lost to this world. Rick shed silent tears, and held Daryl's shoulder until he pulled his brother into a tight hug. He knew that the younger man wasn't ready to admit his feelings, but he knew that he and Beth had shared something special. Daryl remained quiet throughout the process.

His tears had stopped flowing, but he was in a fog. Daryl couldn't see the people coming and going. He couldn't hear the words they said. He stared, counting each breath as it was wetly exhaled by the perfect woman in front of him. He would count, and forget the number, and begin again, until eventually he just counted once, repeatedly. His hands gripped the arms of the chair until Carol handed him a cup of warm broth for dinner.

That had been hours ago, and his hands were back on the arms of the chair, and his knuckles were white from clenching the chair like he was holding onto Beth's humanity for her.

"What do you need, hon?"

"I'm takin' her to the lighthouse. She wanted to go there. I want to take her there before…"

"Tell me what to do."


	5. Lighthouse

I wanna sing while the ocean sleeps  
I wanna feel what it’s like to be free  
I wanna see what you see in me  
I wanna know how it feels to believe

‘Cause I feel lost, somehow I’m drifting away  
Was almost gone, you brought me to life again  
So let me be your lighthouse  
And I’ll help you find a way out of here

I see the tide is comin’  
Don’t let it take you away from me  
There’s no way I'm jumpin’ over  
I know it’s your love that saved me

 -Lighthouse, Hope

* * *

 

Daryl glanced at the sleeping couple who held each other in the bed opposite their unconscious sister. They were sound asleep, and the slightest movement wouldn’t wake them. Daryl had tried. He moved around the room, and scraped the chairs against the floor. The two didn’t stir. They were exhausted, and they trusted Daryl to keep watch on their sister.

Beth’s hand had been tied to her headboard the moment she began to show signs of fever. Sometimes the infection came on quickly, and other times it could take days. Jim didn’t turn until a few days after being bit. They had left him beside a tree, and they had carried on to the CDC without him. He had run a fever for days, and he began to hallucinate. Daryl wasn’t prepared for Beth to begin hallucinating. It would be downhill from that point.

He dabbed a cool cloth on Beth’s forehead, and began to pile a couple things together in her bag. He placed ibuprofen and the knife Carol returned to him into the black bag she had been carrying for months. He also put a couple of big bottles of water into the bag. He imagined that he would be there a full day at the very most, but he was determined to stay there until Beth was no longer with him.

Carol had left to prepare a boat for him. There had been a canoe in one of the sheds at the Coast Guard station. The station had a lot of recreational activities; it had a basketball court, and a volleyball court, and a small beached area for the personnel to relax. When the group arrived, they took the two kayaks and the canoe, just in case they needed it. They kept it in the visitor’s center. Daryl was to get some supplies ready, and be set to leave when Carol returned.

He packed up a few of the blankets that none of the room’s occupants were using. He rolled them up and made them as small as he could to stuff them in Beth’s little bag. He kept one of the thick quilts wrapped tightly around her tiny body.

Carol stuck her head in the door, and Daryl nodded once, letting her know that he was ready. He tucked Beth’s blanket around her, cut her bonds, and picked her feverish body up off the bed. He carried the young woman out of the room and down the length of the covered porch. Beth quietly groaned in his arms, and he gently shushed her.

They walked out over the drawbridge, Carol led the way to the coast with the single flashlight shared between them. She didn’t speak until they could no longer see the looming walls of the fort, and she was sure that no one could hear them making an escape.

“Do you have everything you need?” She asked softly.

Daryl nodded, and whispered, “Yeah.”

“You have a gun?” He shook his head.

“Ain’t gonna use it.” His voice sounded gruff.

“Daryl.” Carol said, “You have to come back. You have to bring her back. Her family needs the closure of giving her a proper funeral.”

“I know.” He said, his head hanging low. “I know. The knife’s in the backpack. I’m ready to do what I gotta do, when I gotta do it. I ain’t gonna do it the easy way.”

Carol was silent as they came upon the canoe at the shore. Daryl handed the still unconscious Beth to Carol, and the woman gently held onto her still frame.

“Goodnight, Beth.” She said softly. The young woman had confided in her that she hated saying goodbye to anyone while they were living at the prison. She had picked up a habit of not telling anyone goodbye, no matter the situation. She would sometimes tell people to be safe, but telling them goodbye was off of the table.

Daryl climbed into the canoe, and he situated off of the supplies into the bottom of the small boat. When he was settled, and he had placed a blanket on the floor of the boat, he looked up at Carol. Carol placed Beth into his arms and kissed her on the forehead.

“I never really told her this, but I imagined that Sophia would have been a lot like she was had she been able to grow up, and if she had a halfway decent father.” Her hand brushed the blonde locks away from her forehead. “I was angry with her yesterday morning. She lied to me about something, and I told her that it wasn’t okay for her to lie to me. She may be an adult, but she still needs a parent sometimes. Everyone still needs a parent sometimes.”

“She saw you as a second mom, Carol.” Daryl said, “Do you ‘member in the prison when she got sick that one night? Somethin’ ‘bout her stomach. She was grabbin’ at it and cryin’ somethin’ awful. She didn’t ask for Maggie or her dad, she asked for you. And you went into her cell, and you calmed her down, and the next couple days she hung ‘round you like you was her momma duck.”

Carol smiled, and placed a kiss on Beth’s forehead. The young woman had complications with her menstruation cycle. With a lack of nutrition, and adequate health care, the young woman had gone several months without a cycle. When it came back, it brought with it painful cramps and a feeling of malaise.

“Come back to us, Daryl.” Carol said, leaning up and kissing him on the forehead as well. “If you’re not back by tomorrow night, I’ll send Rick out to find you.”

Daryl nodded, and began to push the canoe back into the river with his oars. “Gimme a push?”

Carol helped push him into the river, and he began to paddle towards the spinning light of the lighthouse a few hundred yards ahead.

* * *

“I wish you would wake up and see this, Beth.” Daryl said.

The sun was beginning to rise. The dark black sky was lightening to a pastel palette of painted colors against the backdrop of the ocean. Cockspur Island Lighthouse stood in dark silhouette against the purple, pink, and light blue of the sky above them.  It was simply beautiful. The water was calm; little waves lapped against the side of the canoe, and slightly larger waves crashed against the walls of lighthouse.

The lighthouse looked different up close. It didn’t have a just a door and a single window. There were windows on all sides of the small building, and a set of stairs that led from the water line to the door. The front of the lighthouse had a stone prow to cut through the waves that crashed against the front of the white building. The tide was down, and Daryl steered the boat onto the shell and stone beach that surrounded the lighthouse and kept the ground from eroding beneath it.

Beth stirred in her seat, a soft moan escaping her lips. Daryl caressed her curls as she rested between his legs. Daryl moved faster to get her to the lighthouse before she woke up the opposite of the Beth he loved.

He tied a rope to the boat, and stood to step out onto the stairs. He picked Beth’s head up gently, and gently lowered her cheek onto the edge of the seat where he had been sitting for the last hour. His muscles were sore, but he knew he had more work to do. He tied the boat up to a hook found in the stone wall of the lighthouse. He knotted it tightly so it wouldn’t float away. He then picked Beth and the backpack up, and began to carry her up the stairs.

The wooden door was open. It was beginning to erode from the constant splashing of water. It didn’t have a lock, but Daryl imagined that the lighthouse had received few visitors in the hundred or more years it had been around. He opened the door to find himself standing in the entryway that led to a winding stone staircase. Beth wasn’t that heavy, but in her unconscious state, she was unwieldy. He took a deep breath and began to trudge up the winding staircase that lead to the top.

As he walked around the stairs in the lighthouse, he found that he could look out windows every few feet. He could see the open ocean from one side, Tybee Island from another, and back home to Fort Pulaski from the top window. The only floor in the lighthouse was a small wooden platform that was there only to give room for the lighthouse keeper to put his tools and things down and climb the ladder that reached to the base of the light. Daryl laid Beth down in the corner under the ladder, so she wouldn’t roll out of the opening and down the stone stairway.

He went back to the canoe for a few of the other items, and he shut the door when he came back in. The room was fairly dark, but there was just enough light from the light of dawn to see where Beth slept. He sat down, with his back against the wall and he placed her head in his lap since he had no pillows.

She was still warm, and the room was cold. He spread another blanket over her, and wrapped his coat tightly around his shoulders and he began to stroke her hair. Ever so gently his hand ran from her forehead to her ponytail repetitively. The slow rhythm began to affect his breathing. His eyes grew heavy, and his heart rate slowed. Before he could help himself, he fell into a very light sleep.

* * *

He felt her body twist before he woke up. Her head came off of his lap a fraction of an inch, and dropped like a weight onto his knee. His blue eyes shot open the moment he heard a strangled groan escape from her lips. Daryl stood quickly; her head fell with a thump to the wooden floor, and she groaned again. He grabbed his old knife from her backpack, and he tucked it into his left fist. He didn’t need it yet, but he wanted to remain as close to her as he could for as long as possible.

He knelt beside her. He could feel his age as his knees ached while sitting in this position. He leaned over top of her and he placed a kiss on her forehead. She moaned, and her hand reached up to weakly grab at his arm. It was a soft touch over his coat.

“Beth,” he whispered as he smoothed her hair back and kissed her forehead again. Tears formed at the corner of his eyes. He knew that these would be his last moments with her. He moved to sit alongside her. His hip was parallel to hers, and he took her delicate hands in his own. He traced her long fingers, with his short calloused ones.

“Do you ‘member the night you got shot?” He asked her. She groaned at the sound of his voice, and her eyelids fluttered. Her head turned toward him. “I was driving the stolen car, and you were freakin’ out. I started singin’ and told you I didn’t ‘member the lyrics.” He lightly squeezed her hand. “I lied about that. I ‘member the lyrics. I was just scared, ‘cause they’re about weddin’s and bein’ married, and I had basically just told you how important you are to me. You’re important to me, Beth.”

He cleared his throat and squeezed her hand again. “I can sing it if you want.” He knew he wouldn’t get an answer, but he thought he’d try anyway. He sang the lines he sang to her months ago, “ _There’ll be no mansion on the hill with crystal chandeliers, and there’ll be no fancy clothes for you to wear. Everything I have is standing here in front of you to see. All I have to offer you is me._ ”

That part of the song was easy for him to sing. He had already done it. She hadn’t made fun of his singing then, and she wasn’t going to make fun of it this time. He knew he was a terrible singer, but he was trying for her. She made a small sound in the back of her throat.

“ _Sweetheart, I’ll give you all of my love in every way I can. But make sure that’s what you want while you’re still free. The only gold I have for you is in this wedding band. ‘Cause all I have to offer you is me. There’ll be no mansion on the hill with crystal chandelier, and there’ll be no fancy clothes for you to wear. Everything I have is standing here in front of you to see. All I have to offer you is me._ ”

It was a simple song, and it was easy to sing. Daryl sang it with his whole heart. He hadn’t been a wealthy man before the world changed, but over the past several months, with Beth as his closest companion, he felt like the wealthiest man in the world. Beth’s death would make him poor once again, and he didn’t want to open his eyes to see Beth changed.

Her hand clenched his, and pulled his arm closer to her body. Daryl opened his eyes to prevent Beth’s teeth from making contact. He had seen his brother after he had reanimated, and after he had fed. When he found him, Merle hadn’t been his brother for hours. He had been feeding on the body of a human, and his mouth chewed as he walked towards Daryl. He couldn’t let the same fate come to Beth. He couldn’t remember her like that. He didn’t want to remember killing her, but he wanted to remember her as a walker even less. He raised his knife and opened sad eyes to see bright blue eyes looking back at him.

“Daryl?”

Walkers didn’t talk. Their eyes didn’t shine as clear as the tired eyes that gazed back at him. The knife dropped with a thunk to the wooden floor below them. “Beth.” He whispered in shock. “Oh, god. Beth. You’re you.” He hoisted her up off the hard ground and held her close in his arms. She was still uncomfortably warm, but she was conscious, and she wasn’t a walker. He cradled her upper body, and her long, jean clad legs stretched out in front of her.

She looked around the small, damp room with nothing in it, and she looked back up at Daryl with a question in her eyes. “Where are we?” She asked. Her voice was scratchy, and her mouth was dry.

She was confused. The last thing she remembered was Daryl carrying her back to the fort. She looked at her hand, which was covered in a white gauze, and at the blankets that were wrapped around her body. She felt achy, and ill, but clammy and cool when a draft hit her the right way. She didn’t feel very well at all, and she wasn’t sure why Carol’s blanket covered her legs.

“Someplace special.” Daryl said.

Beth looked at him; her eyes squinted at him, trying to decipher what he meant. He picked her up and carried her to the window. He sat her down on the ladder that lead to the light. The feet of the ladder were braced against the wall with the window that looked out at Fort Pulaski. The tattered American Flag that no one felt comfortable taking down flapped in the chilly winter winds.

“Is that…” Beth trailed off.

“Mmm.” Daryl grunted.

“Are we…”

“Yeah.”

Beth’s mouth dropped open in shock. She looked from Daryl to the window, and back towards Daryl. She reached her hand out and grabbed Daryl’s hand. Their fingers interlaced, bringing closeness and comfort to Daryl, who still couldn’t quite believe that Beth was still alive.

She had the beginning symptoms of the illness, brought on by her blood mingling with the blood of the walker, or that’s what he assumed. He watched her fighting to breath, and her moans sounded so familiar. They sounded like the walkers they had killed the previous day.

“Is it everythin’ you expected?” Daryl asked.

“It’s smaller than I thought it would be.” Beth quipped with a smile as she looked around the room. She leaned back against the next rung of the ladder. “I also figured there’d be a little bedroom or somethin’ here, too.”

“This is kinda it.” Daryl said, opening his hands to the small space. Beth gave him a weak smile.

She was thirsty, and her head spun as she watched the waves crash against the building. She felt awful; she closed her eyes against a wave of nausea. “Can you help me lay back down?” She asked. “And maybe a sip of water if you have some.”

“Oh shit. Yeah. I ain’t so good at this nursin’ thing.” He grabbed a bottle of water, and helped her take a small sip of it before putting it down behind the ladder. He lifted her up and brought her back to the spot they had been sleeping earlier, and he laid her back on the ground with his lap as her pillow again.

Beth closed her eyes, and this time, when she fell asleep, Daryl didn’t worry if she would wake up again. He closed his eyes as well, and he slept better than he had in a long time.


	6. Thinkin' About Forever

Yes, of course  
I remember, how could I forget  
How you feel?  
You know, you were my first time  
A new feel  
It won't ever get old, not in my soul not in  
my spirit, keep it alive  
We'll go down this road  
'Til it turns from color to black and white

Or do you not think so far ahead?  
'Cause I been thinkin' about forever

-Frank Ocean, Thinking About You

* * *

 

"Eugene lied to everyone. He said that he knew the cure, but he was really just a high school science teacher. He didn't want Abraham and Rosita to leave him because he wasn't important and he couldn't contribute if somethin' were to happen. I kinda lost my shit, but Rick was Rick, ya' know and he got the situation figured out."

Beth was sitting up, and leaning into Daryl's side. Her head was slumped over onto his shoulder as she listened to him telling her what happened from the moment he got back to the fort until they got to the lighthouse. It was noon; Daryl was hungry, and Beth needed to eat a little bit of something, but they didn't want to leave the lighthouse for more than the necessary bathroom breaks. Daryl hadn't planned on either of them eating, but he resolved himself to the fact that they would be back at the fort before dinner time. Otherwise, Carol would send Rick out here to find the two of them.

He imagined that everyone would be furious with him for taking Beth away from the family. He had promised her a trip to the lighthouse, though, and Daryl never went back on promises. Not if he could help it.

"Your sister and Glenn sat by your bed the entire time, and they kept prayin' and cryin' and hopin' that you'd get better. Everyone thought you'd turn, and everyone was scared."

"How'd you get me out here then, if Glenn and Maggie were by my bed?"

"They fell asleep, and no matter what I did, they didn't wake up. They were sleeping that hard." He shrugged. "So I carried you out. Carol had the boat ready for us, and I got you over here. I wish you coulda seen it, Beth. The sunrise behind the lighthouse was so pretty. It was all these pretty colors; purple, blue, and pink. You would have loved to see it."

"I love that you're telling me about it." Beth smiled up at him. She still felt weak, her head felt like it weighed a million pounds, and her body still ached. Daryl had given her some aspirin, and she felt less clammy, but she just felt sick. Daryl supported her weight as she curled into his chest.

He looked at her with a serious expression. His arm was stretched behind her back and his hand rested on her hip. She was tucked in so close to him. He could smell her. She smelled like flowers, and sunshine, and there was a hint of sweat from her fever. He felt a tightness in his chest, like someone had punched him. Beth saw his expression change, and she tried to sit up just a little more, but Daryl wouldn't let her.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

Daryl shook his head. "I was scared. I was really fuckin' scared, Beth." He felt like the words were caught in his throat. He pulled them out, syllable by syllable, forcing his mouth to shape the words his heart needed to say. Each sentence was drawn out, and a long pause punctuated each one. "I can't do this on my own, not now that I know you, and what it's like with you. I don't want to do this on my own any more. I want to be with you, Beth. For as long as you'll have me."

Beth was still for a long time. She pulled back and looked at Daryl seriously. Like the night at the funeral home, Daryl was speaking to her with more than his words. He actually spoke now, but his eyes still told the meaning he kept hidden. Beth blinked, and took a deep breath.

"Daryl." Beth said slowly, "Are you proposing to me?" She tried to bring a bit of levity to the moment, but Daryl's gaze told her how serious he was in that moment. Daryl's intensity wasn't something Beth was used to seeing. He was usually serious, but he rarely spoke with such depth and sincerity.

"I don't know. Maybe. I mean…" Daryl looked away with a blush on his cheeks. "Maybe, if you want to. I don't want something to happen to you, and to know that we could have had it all. I think your family would kill me if we got married though."

She was slightly taken aback by his honest answer. Beth had always dreamed about getting married. She imagined her daddy walking her down the aisle, and her momma sitting with his momma. She imagined a long lace gown with a train that stretched from the porch of her farm house to the arch erected for that moment. She always thought she'd get married in the summertime to someone very unlike Daryl Dixon.

She hadn't thought about marriage in a very long time. She thought that Glenn and Maggie were special. She was jealous that they had found someone to love so fiercely that they wanted to stick to social customs and get married. And Daryl had been there, just out of her periphery. They became friends, first. Deep drunken talks led to both Beth and Daryl opening up for each other; exposing the soft underbelly of themselves that they had kept hidden to survive. Then they found the funeral home, and Daryl all but told her that she was what changed his mind about the world still having good people. She was shot, and Daryl cared for her in their own little hovel. Daryl tended to care for her a lot, in ways that no one else could. Daryl protected her from so much that had happened to the both of them.

He would make a good husband, Beth thought. She felt safe in his arms, and she knew that he could provide for her if she needed him to; she didn't need him to provide, but it was a benefit that he could. They had a connection, and she could tell him anything. He very obviously adored her. And while they hadn't said those three little words to each other, Beth knew that he felt them, just like she did. She wasn't certain that she was ready for marriage, but she did know that there was no one else in the world that she would ever want more than Daryl Dixon.

She reached up and brushed her palm against his cheek. He turned into her hand and brushed a small kiss to her hand. Blue eyes found their match, and lips met like a prayer. Beth wound her fingers through Daryl's long hair and pulled him closer. Their kiss was slow and sweet as Beth struggled to find the words she needed to say.

She hadn't told anyone that she had such strong feelings for him. She was hesitant to use the word love, because so many people that she had loved died in front of her. She was scared of loving someone else who might someday die. Maggie and Glenn were her sole remaining immediate family, and even to them, love was hard for her to say. But maybe she'd be willing to let the fear go for Daryl. He was going to be the last man standing, after all. He was the only person in this world that was well equipped to handle it, and when the day came for her to die, she knew he would survive it. Beth would love Daryl until her last day, and she knew that there was no one else in this world who was better suited for her.

She pulled away and offered Daryl a soft smile, "I don't know if I'm ready to get married tomorrow, or in the next few weeks, but I know, Daryl Dixon that I want to be with you, and I don't think that will change. Ever. God brought you into my life, and there's no way that I can ignore the feelings I have about you. You mean too much to me. And my sister might get angry, but I know my father respected you so much."

Daryl quirked the corner of his mouth at Beth's mention of Hershel and his respect for the younger man. He still missed the older man like hell, but he tried to stop blaming himself for not finding the Governor before it was too late.

"Maybe we take it slow, and we tell other people what we're thinking first. I want Maggie to be there, and Glenn and Rick, and I want them to know about us before we tell them that we're gonna get married. But yes, Daryl Dixon. I will marry you. After you propose to me for real."

Daryl smirked and let out a small chuckle, "Guess it wasn't exactly a good proposal. You're sure? You'd really marry me someday?"

Beth smiled and entwined their fingers. "Yes. I'm sure." She dropped her wounded hand onto Daryl's thigh and gave his leg a soft pat. "Daryl, you're the best man I have ever met. You're kind, honest, and you make me feel safe. I don't want to give you up for the world."

Daryl squeezed her hand back and gave her a little smile. Then he let out a chuckle, "I don't know. I'd give you up for a cheeseburger. Maybe an ice cream cone with one of them little maraschino cherries on top."

Beth gently shoved him, and he laughed even louder; it was a sound that delighted Beth to hear. "I take it all back," she laughed softly as too much movement made her ache. "You're awful." She smiled up at him, with her eyes soft and happy.

Daryl knew she was kidding, but he stopped laughing as she gazed at him. His eyes triangulated on her face; sweeping between her eyes and her mouth. Beth smiled, watching his eyes, and her own focused on the older man's thin lips. He placed a hand on her jaw, his fingers reaching just behind her ear. His thumb brushed soft circles on her cheek as he tilted her head up and he leaned down to kiss her. Beth tilted her chin up, and their lips met in a passionate kiss.

* * *

Beth slept while Daryl stood to look out the west window as the sun set behind the fort. Yellow, orange and red stretched across the sky, painting Fort Pulaski with soft evening light. Daryl rested his hand against the window, and looked back at the woman who would soon be his wife. Was he being too hasty? Would Hershel have approved? Would Rick approve? He knew Merle's thoughts on marriage, and he knew his brother would have had something to say about wanting to marry someone he hadn't even gotten to second base with yet.

Daryl decided it didn't matter, none of it would matter as long as he was with Beth. He sighed and turned away from the window. The room was basked in light from the sunset, but Daryl knew it wouldn't last much longer. It was time to take Beth home.

He crouched beside her with a water bottle and more aspirin. While she had been awake and happy for a little while, she soon started to feel unwell again and Daryl had encouraged her to rest. He had brought her to the lighthouse in an attempt to fulfill a promise he had made to her, and she had known that the lighthouse would be important to her. Maybe it was self-fulfilling prophesy; she had said that she would be happy at the lighthouse, and Daryl made it so because he knew she wanted to be happy at the lighthouse. He had hoped that he would get her here and that things would magically get better, but he knew that was unlikely. The unlikely happened, however, and Beth woke up; sick, but alive.

Daryl rubbed a hand over her back and whispered her name to rouse her from sleep. She cracked open blue eyes and looked up at him with a fuzzy expression, like she couldn't remember just where they were. "Take this," he said, pressing the aspirin into her hand.

"Thank you," she croaked. She took the bottle of water he offered with her other hand and swallowed the pills with a grimace. "I always liked Advil better." She commented.

"We gotta head back to the fort." Daryl said with a sad smile. "Carol said she'd send Rick if we weren't back by nightfall." Carol expected Daryl to come back with Beth's body, not a living Beth. He hoped that he hadn't caused chaos on the little island with his escape plan, and that Carol had told them that it was Beth's last wish to see the lighthouse up close.

Beth nodded, and attempted to stand. She wanted to help Daryl pack everything back up and put it away into the little bag he brought with him. She teetered, and Daryl helped her sit down on the ladder. "Don't worry about it. I got it." He said, his hands held her shoulders gently. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and he finished cleaning up their supplies.

Daryl ran the supplies down to the boat, and came back for Beth. "The tide has come in," he said as he wrapped her arm around his shoulder and helped her walk down the stairs. "So the boat is floatin' close to the stairs, and it may be a little difficult to get in, but I'm gonna help."

Beth nodded, "Just as long as I don't have to swim," she shot him a quick smile as he opened the door for her. The water was halfway up the stairs, and the boat kept banging into the one just under the water. Beth gathered the blanket around her knees, and Daryl helped her to the floor of the boat. He climbed in after her, and sat on the seat so he could paddle the boat back home. Beth leaned against his knees, unconsciously mirroring the way she had lain on their way to the lighthouse.

"It's really beautiful close up," Beth said, looking at the lighthouse as they paddled away. "I mean, it looks like it's about to fall apart, but it's beautiful, because even though it looks like it could crumble away at any moment, it is still standing strong, and it probably will for some time." Beth looked up at Daryl who was smiling at her, "It's kind of like us, isn't it? All of us at the fort. We could all crumble away into nothin' and we haven't yet. We're all still strong."

Daryl gave Beth a soft look and a quick nod, letting her know that he agreed, and that he understood her meaning. They were strong individuals, but they were stronger together. Like the bricks held together by the mortar, they were held together by hope, friendship, loyalty and love. Beth had the ability to bring that out in others, and had she died the entire group would have felt her loss. Daryl was happy he was bringing her home; alive and well.

* * *

Carl and Hector sat side by side on top of the terreplein. Their feet hung over the edge, swinging back and forth. They were waiting; waiting for Daryl, waiting for word about Beth, just waiting. There wasn't much else they could do while they waited.

That morning Maggie had woken them up with screams. Everyone thought that Beth had turned and that Maggie needed help. Rick had been the first in the door, followed by Tyreese and Bob. The others who showed up stood outside the door in various states of undress. Carl hadn't been wearing shoes, and Hector hadn't worn a shirt. Hattie had a nightgown on, and her silver curls were wrapped in a sleep cap to protect the long tresses. Those who filed out of their bedrooms had a solemn look upon their faces. They expected someone to come out and tell them that Beth was gone.

Glenn came out of the bedroom with a confused look on his face. His brows were creased, and he looked around the group. He seemed to be looking for someone in particular.

"Beth's gone." He said. He spoke in a way that confused the others waiting to hear the news. It wasn't the sorrow everyone expected, but bewilderment about the situation. "She wasn't in bed."

His eyes found Carol, who held Judith close to her chest. "Where is he?"

"Who?" Carol asked, feigning a lack of knowledge. Her lips pressed together tightly, and her shoulders curled in around Judith to protect both of them.

"Daryl. He was here last night when we went to sleep. He's not here now. Where is he?" Glenn started to get angry. The older man had taken his wife's sister; his sister. Carol would be the one person he told if he told anyone where he was taking her.

Carol looked at the group, and she took a deep breath, "He promised her something, and he intended to keep that promise."

"What did he promise her?" Glenn asked over Maggie's sobs coming from the bedroom.

"The lighthouse."

Carl and Hector were the last to watch the lighthouse before nightfall; they were tasked with watching for signs of Daryl leaving so Glenn, Maggie, and Rick could meet him at the shore. They came up after they ate dinner, and sat still as the sun set behind them. Both were capable of taking the task on alone, but the two had built a close friendship, and neither wanted to sit by themselves. They watched as Rick pulled a kayak onto the far shore. His father kept to the promise that he wouldn't go after Daryl until nightfall, but as the sun disappeared, Rick wanted to be prepared.

"You were close with Beth weren't you?" Hector asked. The deep red sunset made Hector's chestnut skin look deeper than it typically did during the day. Hector was darker than his grandmother; his grandmother had a white father, and Hector's mother had been Kenyan. Hector closely resembled Hattie's daughter-in-law.

Carl looked over at his friend and gave him a sad nod. "I had a crush on her when I was eleven or twelve, but then she became kind of like a sister, and kind of like a mom. She's just… Beth, ya' know?"

Hector nodded, and put his hand on Carl's shoulder. "I'm sorry, for what it's worth."

Carl gave him a small shake of his head. "It ain't worth much, but thanks."

Hector pulled his hand back into his lap and looked out across the water. Rick stood near the kayak, speaking to Carol. She had her hand out in what looked like a plea for Rick to wait, to give Daryl the chance to come back on his own. He would. Carl sighed and leaned forward to put his elbows on his knee.

"Did you read the new comic Michonne brought back for you?" Hector asked, the pair had been sharing comic books, and every time Michonne brought Carl something new, the other teen begged to read it.

Carl shook his head. "Not yet. Do you want to read it tonight?" The two boys shared a room, and they were both known for staying up late to talk or read comics. Rick would peek his head into their room to tell them to go to sleep whenever he walked by before going to bed. The boys would giggle each time they got caught.

"Yeah. Hey. It looks like something's moving over there." Carl squinted at the lighthouse in the distance. A dark figure tossed something into the boat connected to the lighthouse, and headed back inside. "Is that Daryl?"

"Looks like him." Carl said. "He went back in."

A few minutes later, Hector whispered. "Wait! He's coming back out. What's he got…"

"Beth? Is that Beth?" Carl looked at Hector with a shocked face, "Beth's standing on her own right? He's not carrying her! She's alive!"

The two boys stood and ran to the stairs, "They're comin' back!" They shouted in unison. "Daryl and Beth are comin' back!"

They raced out the drawbridge, over the moat, and to the path that led to the lighthouse. Their shouts echoed around the fort, and everyone came out of their rooms. One at a time, they climbed onto the terreplein to look across the water at a little boat with a man sitting on the seat rowing across the channel, and a woman at his knee. Two young men jumped and shouted to gain Daryl's attention when they joined Rick and Carol at the shore. Daryl turned back and nodded, acknowledging that he saw the small group waiting for him and Beth. A thin arm reached up and waived briefly before the blonde it was connected to dropped her head to Daryl's knee in exhaustion. The group shouted in joy to see the young woman still alive. Glenn and Maggie ran to join the others at the shore, eager to welcome their sister back home.


	7. I Saw Her Standing There

Well, she was just seventeen  
You know what I mean  
And the way she looked was way beyond compare  
So how could I dance with another  
When I saw her standing there

Well she looked at me, and I, I could see  
That before too long I'd fall in love with her  
She wouldn't dance with another  
When I saw her standing there

Well, my heart went "boom"  
When I crossed that room  
And I held her hand in mine...

-The Beatles, I Saw Her Standing There

* * *

The small rowboat reached the shore as the sky turned a dark blue and the sun set behind the horizon. Rick grabbed the bow and pulled the boat past the shoal and onto the grassy field next to the kayak he was going to use to go after Daryl had he not returned. Carl and Hector grinned as they grabbed the oars from Daryl, happy that he was back and that he had brought a living Beth with him.

Maggie grabbed Beth and hauled her up into a hug. Beth tripped over the side of the boat as Maggie pulled her out and Daryl jumped up to catch her. Maggie took her sister's weight in one arm, and used the other to shove Daryl away.

"You took her—"

"Maggie!" Beth cried weakly. She pulled Maggie's arm back to let Daryl come closer.

"Beth." Maggie sighed. The look she gave her sister echoed the sadness and concern she had felt for the last two days. "He took you away from us. He took you and we thought you were dead." Tears slipped from her sister's eyes. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"I'm here, Maggie." Beth said. "I'm not dead, just sick is all. Don't be mad at him for takin' me there. He promised me he would; Daryl doesn't go back on promises." Beth turned her head and looked at Daryl with a soft smile.

Daryl nodded back at Beth. Maggie's arms wrapped around her sister's head, and her finger's curled through her tangled blonde locks. Beth felt lanky arms wrap around her stomach, and a sheriff's hat brim tucked into her shoulder. Beth smiled and leaned her head into Carl's hat. She felt incredibly loved when another pair of arms joined the ones wrapped around her. She reached up to pat Hector on the shoulder, but her hands caught soft curls instead. Hector laughed, causing a chain reaction within the group.

"Let's get you back," Rick said with a soft smile. Beth smiled back and nodded. Carol grabbed her backpack, Glenn picked her up, and the rest followed as they made their way back to the fort.

* * *

"You shouldn't have taken her without telling us about it." Maggie cornered Daryl in his bedroom when the older man finally stopped for the night. Beth was asleep in her bedroom; Carol reclaimed her bed, and promised to keep an eye on the young woman who was still severely ill. Maggie had stayed with Beth until she fell asleep, and left the moment she felt certain that her sister would be fine.

"I know I ain't got a door, but you should still wait till I say you can come in." Daryl sat on his bed and removed his boots. He sniffed as he caught a whiff of the smell from his feet, and Maggie wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"How long has it been since you've had a proper bath?" Maggie said with distain.

"Iunno. A week?" Daryl shrugged. "Maybe more."

Maggie shook her head and sat down backwards in the chair Carol had dragged in a couple days before. "You really should clean up."

"You really should stay outta a man's room 'less you've been invited." Daryl leaned back on his bed and put his arms under his head. He had to admit that he probably could use a bath, but it hadn't been something that was on his mind in a few days. He had more that he was concerned about; Beth mainly. She hadn't complained about him smelling bad, but maybe she was too polite to say anything. He vowed to take a bath the next day, but not because Maggie told him he stunk.

She leaned her chin against the back of the chair and looked at him intently, "Listen, I know she's an adult, and I know she's got a good head on her shoulders, and I know how stubborn she can be when she wants something, but the thing is, she was out cold. She didn't know what was happening, and she couldn't say whether or not she wanted to go with you. You made a decision that affected her, and affected us, without even talking to us about it first."

Daryl leaned up on his elbows and looked at Maggie. His forehead crinkled as he thought about what she said. He frowned, but nodded letting Maggie know that he understood what she meant. "She was safe, I made sure of it."

"It's not about her safety, Daryl!" Maggie exclaimed, "I trust you with her. But if she died, I wouldn't forgive myself for not being there with her when it happened. You took that away from us. You took our opportunity to be there with her when it happened away from us. That's what I'm upset about."

"It didn't happen—"

"And we're lucky for that. I'm happy she made it through, and the virus didn't kill her, but if she hadn't made it…"

Daryl nodded, "I'm sorry." He sat up, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and looked at the floor. His right sock had a hole in it where his big toe met the inside of his boot. His thin, gray socks needed to be replaced with a new pair, but Daryl wasn't the sort to get himself new clothing, unless it was strictly necessary. He found something he liked, and he stuck with it. "She made me promise to take her to the lighthouse. I thought it was my last chance. You know how much she loves it; she's always lookin' at it from the fort. So, I did what I had to do, to make sure she saw it before… I'm sorry that you wouldn't have been with her when it happened, if it had happened. But it didn't."

Maggie nodded and she stood up from the chair. "Thank you." She walked toward the curtain and opened it a couple inches before turning around and looking at Daryl once more, "Just so you know, if you hurt her I'll have Glenn knock you around until you can't see straight."

Daryl chuckled and shooed her out of his bedroom. "I'd like to see him try." Maggie grinned and slipped out of the curtain that separated Daryl's bedroom from the main living area.

* * *

Rick, Bob, Hattie and Eugene were sitting around the dining room table in the section of the fort that had formerly been the prison. Rick had his hands clasped in front of him on the table, and occasionally as he spoke, he would bring his fingers up to his lips in a point. He was considering the words those around him spoke. The candles had been lit almost an hour ago, and they were slowly melting onto the table. Rick hadn't imagined the conversation to last as long as it had, but they had a lot of questions to which they needed to find answers.

"It may not be a blood infection." Bob said as he looked at the three others. "It could be that it's only bites and scratches that kill."

"But why? Why isn't it the blood?" Hattie asked.

"If it is a blood infection, then Beth might be the only person in the world who is capable of surviving it. What makes her different?" Eugene asked. "It doesn't seem likely that she'd be the only person capable of surviving this infection. There needs to be experiments; we need to figure this out so we know."

"It doesn't make sense." Bob said, "I think we need to figure it out."

Rick raised his fingers to his lips again, "Eugene, what do you need for an experiment like this to work?"

"You trust me to run these experiments?" Eugene looked at Bob and Hattie, and then back at Rick. "You think that I'm capable of doing experiments like this?"

"Can you do it?"

"I think so. I've not done anything like it before, but I think I can."

"What do you need?"

* * *

Beth groaned as she woke; her head ached, and her body was sore but she was glad to see Carol sitting across from her. It felt like it had been months since she awoke to find Carol fixing her knife in the bed beside her. Much had changed, yet it was all familiar. Judith crawled on the floor; she babbled happily as she chased after a cup that rolled across the floor. When she caught it, she banged it against the cold cobblestones and let out a squeal of delight.

Carol shushed her with a chuckle and she looked over at Beth. "Morning," she said softly as she folded Judith's clean onesies. She placed the little outfit she had on her bed, and moved to sit beside Beth. She brushed a hand over the young woman's forehead and checked her temperature.

"You're still a little warm," Carol said. "How do you feel?"

"Not great." Beth croaked, "My head hurts, my body hurts."

Carol got up and grabbed a glass of water, and aspirin for Beth. She brought it over for the young woman to drink. "Let's get this in you, and maybe get some food. Then we'll see how you feel."

Beth took the medicine Carol brought her, and drank the glass of water. She handed the empty glass back to Carol, and laid back down on the bed. She grimaced at Carol in an attempt to show her an appreciative smile. Carol smiled and crossed the room to put the glass back on the table.

"I can't keep takin' aspirin," Beth whispered. "If someone needs it more than I do…"

"That's sweet of you," Carol said softly, as she sat back down beside Beth, "to be so concerned about others. If we need more, we will find more."

Carol brushed the hair off of Beth's forehead. Beth looked up at her as she leaned back into her pillow. Carol looked sad, and she looked tired. She looked like her journey had really taken an emotional toll on her from the time she left the prison until they found her on the highway. Beth felt concern for the older woman whom she considered to be a mother figure in her life.

"I'm sorry for getting angry at you the other day." Carol said. She took Beth's hand in her own. "I'm protective over him." Beth didn't need the name to know of whom Carol spoke.

"I get it, Carol." Beth said in a whisper.

"No, I don't think you do. Daryl was the one person who I could depend on after my husband died, and when my Sophia went missing. I loved him, or I thought I did, but I was still afraid to be alone. I got over that fear; I'm not afraid to be alone any more, but I will always love him for what he did for me then. He will always be the person I care about most in this entire world. And what I want most for him is for him to be happy."

Beth nodded, "Me too, he deserves to be happy."

"Do you think you can make him happy?"

"I don't know," Beth said, "I will try."

"That's what I thought with Ed," Carol paused and looked over at Judith who had pulled herself up on the corner of Beth's bed. Beth looked over at her and smiled. "Beth, Daryl's not had a happy life. The end of the world is probably the best thing to happen to him. He's still learning how to care about people, and it's going to take time. He won't be like Jimmy or Zach—"

"I know he won't. I know he isn't… Jimmy and Zach were both great people, but they had a different life than he did. They were also very young and weren't cut out for a world like this."

"You're very young."

Beth shook her head, "Not anymore. Not after everything. Carol, I know you think that I'm too young for Daryl, and that I'm fickle, and that I can't care about him like I should, but I can, and I do, and it's not some passing interest. He's the best man I've ever met, excluding my father, but no one could outshine my father. He's kind, strong, brave, and a hero. And I trust him with my life. There's not another person on this planet that I will find like him, and I want him in my life. Forever; as long as he's happy, and I'm happy, and everything is okay."

Carol nodded at Beth, and stood from her bed. "I'm glad to hear that. Treat him well, Beth. And love him. Love him as much as he loves you, if not more. He's going to need a lot of it."

Beth smiled softly, and nodded, "I think I can do that."

* * *

The fever finally broke a few hours later. Beth didn't feel perfect, but she felt better. She decided that a bath would be the best cure to make her feel human again. Carol and Judith had gone off to help prepare lunch, and the others would be sitting down to eat soon. Beth had some rice earlier in the morning. Mixed with a little bit of powdered milk and some sugar, it became a cooked rice cereal that was almost as good as oatmeal.

She didn't think she was up for anything more than that now. She could smell rabbit cooking, and she wondered if Rick had caught it in one of his snares, or if Daryl had gone hunting as soon as they got back.

A few of the others had stopped in to see her during the day, but almost everyone had been warned to give her the space to recover from whatever illness she had. She'd put in an appearance in the evening when she felt a little better. She tucked a towel under her arm and wrapped herself up in her coat to walk down to the bathroom.

She slipped into the cistern room from the access door off of the women's toilets. The toilets had been installed when the fort became a museum. Glenn had rigged two of the toilets to actually flush; both in the men's room and the women's room. He said that there was an underground sewage system that would collect any waste and safely dispose of it into the river.

The group rarely opened the outside door to the cistern room because they were never certain if someone would be taking a warm bath inside or not. A gust a cold air could cause a chill, and perhaps an unkind word or two to be said. Beth peeked her head inside the room and called out to see if anyone was inside. As she thought, everyone was still eating lunch. Beth smiled and began to fill pots to boil on the wood stove near the tubs.

Someone had been in earlier; the fire was stoked, and warm coals were ready to boil the next pots of water. Beth wondered if Carol had come to give Judith a bath. Between the two of them, Judith was probably the only person to get a bath every day. The others would trade off between days, simply for the fact that it took so much work to fill one bath tub. For Judith, it only took two hot pots of water, and one cold pot. The only difference was when Beth would bathe with Judith, resting the young girl on her stomach while she gently washed her tiny arms and legs. Beth treated Judith like her daughter, and she recalled bathing with her parents when she was very small. It wasn't something that bothered her, because she doubted that Judith would remember it in the future, and if she did she would only remember how much Beth adored her like a child of her own.

Pot after pot went into one of the antique metal tubs the group had found for bathing. It had a high back, and it tapered off near the feet. As the water took time to boil, the hot water Beth poured in before began to cool. The group had discovered that this was one of the best ways to get the water to a comfortable temperature. Four pots of hot water were the last to go in, and Beth slowly slipped her clothes off and slid into the hot water.

She sighed as she sunk back into the tub. Her thin legs reached up to the top of the tub and she slowly began to rub soap over her body. She was careful to avoid pulling the stitches in her palm, but she submerged and washed the wound to help it heal. As she lathered under her arms, and over her legs, she could feel the body hair that had grown over the last few weeks. They rarely had safety razors, and most of the women had given up caring about the fact that their bodies grew hair a long time ago. Beth still hung onto the notion that smooth skin was pretty, but she was also practical, and knew that razors were hard to find, and she hadn't learned how to use the razors the men used for their faces.

It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, she thought as she rubbed the soft hair on her legs. The hair was thin and almost translucent, and it tickled as she rubbed her hand against the direction the hair grew. Her fingers trailed up to her thighs as she continued to wash her skin and feel the tiny hairs that grew on the inside of her legs.

She dunked her head under the water when she realized the effect her hands were having on her in the warm water of the bath tub. Volts of electricity were shooting from her palms to her stomach and breasts. Her nipples puckered from stimulation and the chilly air outside of the tub. She could see steam rising from the water, and the floral smell of the soap smelled wonderful against her skin. She combed her fingers through her hair and applied conditioner which she allowed to soak into her hair as she relaxed. She took a quick look at her surroundings and determined that it wouldn't be a bad thing if she allowed herself the opportunity to relax even further; after all, it helped her feel better whenever she was cramping, maybe it would help her feel better after the illness she suffered.

She closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. Her head rested on the back of the tub, and her long wet hair fanned out over the back. She could hear a steady drip onto the wood, but she didn't allow it to disturb her. The fire crackled in the stove, and a warm light filled the room, almost like candlelight. Beth knew that Maggie would sometimes light candles for a bath while they lived at home in the farm house, and her sister had shared with her the reasons why.

Maggie was the first person to tell Beth about sex. Her parents had been very religious, and refused to talk to their children about it, other than to tell them to wait until marriage and that masturbation was preferable to sex, but it was still frowned upon. Maggie had told her after a very painful period that sometimes orgasms helped relieve cramps, and that sometimes it helped relieve other desires she might crave.

The first time Beth touched herself, she was nervous that she would be caught, and she stopped before she even began to find it pleasurable. It took her months of quiet exploration before she experienced her first orgasm. After that, she sought the opportunity whenever she felt like relaxing, or finding a way through a painful cramp. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the world ended, and her house filled up with more people. Her first boyfriend, Jimmy, came to live with them, as well as her aunt and uncle. Neighbors up the street stayed with them until they became infected, and they moved to the barn, and eventually, Rick's group came to live on their property.

Beth hadn't had many opportunities after that to spend time on her own. The prison cells echoed, and made her feel uncomfortable, even though most nights she could hear her sister and Glenn a few cells away. She couldn't while Daryl and she were on the run, and she had no desire after she was first violated on the road outside the funeral home. It was the first time that she had both the desire and the opportunity to explore her body.

She returned her hands to the place where she had felt the electricity, and gently caressed her skin. She repeated the movement as she pulled her hands up her stomach and over her firm breasts. Her thumbs flicked over her puckered nipples, and she imagined that her hands belonged to Daryl. She sighed and continued the imagination as she thought of his fingers slipping between her legs.

Her soft sighs became harsher as the imagination played itself out. Sighs became moans, and moans turned to pleas, as her fingers circled and explored her most sensitive area. She replayed the first kiss the two shared in the woods before they knew Glenn had been found; how his lips felt against her mouth, and his hands fit against her sides, and how it felt like they were sharing air with each breath they took. With a soft cry, she came.

She sunk back into the back of the tub with a pleased sigh. Slowly, she slipped down and submerged her head under the water for a second time to wash out the conditioner she had lathered in previously. Her breath remained ragged and her muscles gently contracted, but she felt relief from the tensions in her shoulders and a sense of ease that she hoped would stay for a while.

The heavy wooden door's hinges creaked and the sound echoed around the cistern room. Beth sat up in shock. She wrapped an arm around her chest. She was lucky that the individual hadn't come in moments before. She had put herself into a dangerous situation, but she had been lucky.

"'Lo?" A gruff southern voice called out. Beth knew instantly who the voice belonged to.

"Hi, Daryl." Her hair covered the part of her chest that her arms couldn't cover, and she sunk low in the tub.

"Hey, Beth." Daryl's voice was shaky, and he stayed at the corner of the room. "Uh, I left my socks…"

"Oh," She leaned up out of the tub a little ways and noticed a pair of gray socks sitting beside one of the other bath tubs. "Urm, you can come get them."

"You, uh, don't mind?"

Beth shrugged, "We're kinda together, so I guess it's not a big deal."

"Oh, right." Daryl walked closer to her, and Beth could see that his long brown hair was still wet from a bath he took earlier. "I guess that makes sense, huh?"

Daryl kept his eyes averted from the tub she was in; his shoulders were hunched. Beth still kept her arms over her chest and the rest of her body under the water. He stopped at the tub he had used and picked up his socks from the wooden floor, and chanced a glance over at her, his eyes staying exclusively on her eyes.

"Are you feeling better?"

Beth nodded, "Yeah. My fever broke this morning; I'm just getting the sick feeling off of me."

"Good." He grunted and turned his body back away from Beth, "I'll talk to you later. Enjoy your bath."

Beth could have sworn that he ran out of the room quicker than he came in.

* * *

Daryl shut the door and leaned back against it. He huffed out the breath he didn't know he had been holding, and looked around the men's bathroom to make sure he was alone. He felt an ache in his groin that he longed to relieve, but he felt guilty pleasuring himself to the experience he had just had in the cistern room.

He had gone in with the intention of grabbing his socks and heading down the gorge to peek his head in on Beth. She hadn't come to lunch, and Daryl was certain that she would like something small to eat, either rice or the broth that Carol made for the rabbit stew. He expected her to still be sleeping, but was surprised when he found her in the bathroom. He was even more surprised when he realized that she wasn't just bathing. He stood there in shock as she released breathy moan after breathy moan, and his mouth dropped in shock when she came with a low whine.

He had let the door shut quietly; she obviously hadn't heard him come in. His only option was to pretend that he hadn't been there. He let the door swing to the point right before it would bang against the door jam, and he opened it as loudly as he could, forcing the hinges to squeak and alert Beth to his presence. He had called out to her, and tried to make it seem like he had just walked into the room. He felt awkward, and he couldn't look at her at all. When he did, he made sure to only look at her face, and not the rest of her. He spoke with her for a few moments, grabbed his socks, and left. If anyone were to ask him what he said to her, he wouldn't remember at all.

Daryl took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. He was embarrassed, and he wasn't sure if he should admit to her what he had heard. He leaned against the door for a second longer while he released the knots of anxiety that had built up in his stomach. With one final deep breath, Daryl pushed himself off the door, and made his way out of the bathroom.

 


	8. Advice for the Young at Heart

Too many people living in a secret world  
While they play mothers and fathers  
We play little boys and girls  
When we gonna make it work?  
I could be happy  
I could be quite naïve  
It's only me and my shadows  
Happy in our make believe

-Advice for the Young at Heart, Tears for Fears

* * *

Daryl schooled his features into the blank mask he had used frequently as a child, and right after the world went to shit. He felt like the mask was cracked now, and everyone would be able to see right through him to see that something was wrong. It didn't help that he had so many friends within the small group; the more friends he had, the more likely someone was to notice when something was wrong.

He passed Tyreese, and he gave the man a nod. Tyreese squinted at Daryl, but nodded at him in return. Daryl let out a sigh of relief that the man hadn't commented, or asked him what was wrong. It was likely that Tyreese knew something was up, and he would probably say something to Sasha, who in turn would say something to Tara, who would talk to Glenn, who would tell Maggie. Daryl didn't know what they might say, but he knew that there would be talk soon.

"Hey, Daryl." A young voice said from just below his shoulder. Daryl turned and gave Carl a small smile. The young man had grown so much over the last few months, puberty was setting in, and Daryl was beginning to see the man Carl would soon become. His jaw had squared out, and his voice had begun to get deeper. Occasionally, his voice would crack, and the adults around him would chuckle. Long, lanky limbs replaced round features, and his shoes had to be replaced every few weeks. Carl was growing into a man; Daryl was glad that the boy had the opportunity to grow. Too many kids didn't these days.

"Hey, little man," Daryl said, ruffling Carl's hair playfully. Carl followed behind Daryl by a couple steps. Daryl thought that he had left the kid behind, but he noticed Carl behind him a few seconds later. He was headed towards his room; he decided that he could wait to put away his socks if Carl needed something.

"What's up?" Daryl asked.

Carl shrugged and shook his head. His long hair shook into his eyes, and he combed it back with his fingers. Daryl frowned. He knew that something was bothering the young man, but he wasn't sure what it was. Daryl tilted his head and grunted, signaling for Carl to follow him.

Daryl stopped in his room to throw his socks in his dirty clothes pile, and to pick up his crossbow. Carl stood at the edge of the curtain and looked around the room. He had seen Daryl's room before, occasionally the older man would leave the curtain open at the side of the living room, but he had never gone into the room before.

At the quarry camp, Carl had entered Daryl and Merle's tent without asking, and the two men had threatened to tear him limb from limb. They had dragged him by his collar to his mother, and told her if she didn't keep him out of their things, they would make him regret laying eyes on their tent in the first place.

Daryl had calmed considerably since that time, but Carl was still cautious to enter his bedroom. He needn't worry about heading into his room or not, however, because Daryl was in and out with his crossbow in hand. "C'mon. Let's go for a walk."

They didn't talk as they made their way outside of the fort. Daryl carried the crossbow slung over his shoulder, and Carl walked behind him; his head down, and shoulders curled up around his ears. Daryl didn't say anything, Carl didn't either until they made their way down the lighthouse path.

It was a nice little walk; it was safe, and Daryl knew the few alligators on the island didn't live over here, so they wouldn't come close to a nest. He also chose this walk because there was a bench with a nice view, and if he sat down and took in the scenery, Carl would too, and maybe he'd talk about what was bothering him.

A white crane flew overhead as Daryl and Carl reached the bench. Daryl could see the row boat and kayak he, Beth, and Rick had used the day prior. They were still up on the grass, tethered to rocks so they wouldn't float away if the tide reached them. Daryl sat on the weathered park bench that was dedicated to "Bertha and George Price: The site of their first kiss" and hitched his elbow along the back. Carl sat down next to him with space between them.

"We should bring back the boats." Daryl said. He jerked his chin in their direction. "Might need 'em up close where we can get 'em."

"Yeah, probably." Carl said distractedly. He focused on his hands, and picked at the rough cuticle at his thumb. Daryl watched, and brought his own thumb to his mouth before Carl made a similar movement.

"So, what's up, kid?" Daryl asked. He spit the cuticle he had bitten off into the grass next to the bench. His hand remained at his mouth. If he had brought a cigarette, he would have lit it up even though the young man next to him always told him how bad it was for his health. Daryl had an oral fixation, one that he had since he was a child, and thumb sucking wasn't seen as 'appropriate behavior'; so he chewed on his cuticles, and he smoked cigarettes. When he was in high school, pens made their way to his mouth before he even noticed he was chewing on them.

Carl shrugged, "I dunno." He fidgeted and looked up at Daryl to see if the older man believed him. Daryl looked at the young man with one eyebrow raised, and his mouth pressed into a thin line. He dropped his hand to his lap, and leaned away from Carl. Carl read his expression as a call out to his bullshit. He sighed. "I guess I just wondered if you, well, if it's normal to not want… that… after..."

"By 'that', you mean, sex?" Carl nodded. "Is someone asking you to have sex with them?" Daryl's hackles rose, and he could feel himself getting angry. If someone was asking Carl to have sex with them, they'd have a very angry uncle to deal with. Daryl didn't think it was appropriate for anyone to be asking Carl to have sex with them. The group treated him like a man, but that didn't mean that he was one. After everything that the young man had gone through, Daryl wanted to strangle whomever was asking Carl for sex, let them turn into a zombie, and then give them the Michonne treatment.

Carl, thankfully, shook his head quickly. "No! Nothing like that." Daryl let out an audible sigh of relief. "It's just that, at the prison, when Dad told you guys that I was reading comic books under the blankets with a flashlight, I wasn't always reading comic books under the blanket with a flashlight. You know what I mean?"

Daryl chuckled, "I hate to break it to you, kid, but we all knew that you weren't readin' under the blankets with a flashlight most nights." Carl flushed and sat with his mouth agape. "Listen, it's no big deal. You just happened to start puberty at a really unfortunate time. Privacy is a commodity we don't have, so as long as you're not botherin' nobody, nobody's gonna bother you about it."

Carl groaned and put his head in his hands, "I can't believe…"

"Really, kid, don't worry about it." Daryl clapped a hand on his shoulder, "so, I guess you're not wantin' it now, not like you did before."

Carl shook his head into the palm of his hands. He refused to look up at Daryl. "Does that make me a freak?"

"A freak? Hell naw," Daryl said leaning back, "Carl, you ain't a freak 'cause some shit happened to you. You're a fuckin' survivor. And sometimes the shit that happens to ya makes other things different, but it ain't somethin' bad. It's just how it is."

Daryl sat quietly for a moment and watched as Carl tried to process what he had just told him. It seemed to Daryl lately, that the only person he had told some of the bad shit that happened to him in childhood was Carl. Carl was the only person he told about his mother; both had lost their mothers at an early age. Carl also knew about the sexual abuse he suffered, and the fact that his father killed the friend that abused Daryl, even though Will Dixon had spent that much time abusing his son. His father got off on self-defense, and went right back to drinking. Carl was the only person he had told these things to, because the young man needed to hear them. The teen needed to know that there was someone else like him out there, and that he wasn't alone. Daryl tried to provide that support for Carl as much as he could.

"This is another story I'm gonna ask you to keep to yourself." Daryl said, his head tipped to Carl seriously. "You can't tell anyone about this, not even Hector, or your dad." Carl shook his head, promising that he wouldn't.

"I was six when it happened, so I didn't even know about puberty yet, other than what I saw Merle goin' through, and I didn't come across it myself until I was fourteen. I was a late bloomer; scrawny and underfed. I probably weighed a buck-fifteen soakin' wet. And it freaked me out when I started wakin' up in the mornin' with mornin' wood, and had no desire to take care of it. 'Cause for so long, that part of my body wasn't somethin' that I had control over, it was somethin' that he had control over…" Daryl's speech began to run together out of nervousness. It really wasn't something he talked about to anyone, and it was never anything he admitted to any of the handful of partners that he had been with. The fact that he was opening up about this to Carl was monumental.

"And it wasn't until I was in high school that I even wanted to try touchin' myself. I knew all the guys at school did it, and most of them had girlfriends, but I was never like them, and it was never something I felt comfortable with. And maybe you won't feel comfortable with it, and that's okay. And if you do feel comfortable with it, don't be ashamed about it. It's part of life."

Carl nodded, "And you eventually had sex, right? I mean, real sex. The kind you want, not the kind you don't."

'What is it with kids, and needing to be sure they would eventually get laid?' Daryl wondered to himself. He supposed he understood it though; with the world as suck-ass as it was, there was a small enough chance of getting laid, and if you were frightened about it, but still wanted to live as normal of a life as possible, it was something to be concerned about. Daryl nodded.

"Eventually. It wasn't love, but it was somethin'."

Carl nodded, and looked up at Daryl. He gave him a small, appreciative smile and a nod, "Daryl… Thanks."

Daryl smiled, and ruffled Carl's hair, "Anytime, kiddo."

* * *

Beth walked with her head down and her quilt wrapped around her shoulders. She had thick pants on over tights, and her feet were wrapped in socks and tucked into her boots. She wore a Savannah State hooded sweatshirt, and she briefly wondered what it would have been like to be a college student at Savannah State University. She imagined that she would have been taking many introductory courses at whatever college she decided to attend, and perhaps a course in music. It didn't matter what her dream might have been, not now, but Beth still liked to imagine what her life might have been like in a perfect world.

The dark blue sweatshirt had been brought back from one of the big box stores a few weeks ago. A shipment had been delivered before the end of the world, and Beth benefitted from one of the last small sweatshirts baring the name of a University she would never attend. Maggie and Sasha had the same sweatshirt in different sizes, and Tyreese possessed a new Braves coat in the largest size Beth had ever seen. Carl dared her to try it on a few days before she had gotten ill, and it hung around her knees, and the sleeves extended past her fingertips. Tyreese laughed when he saw Beth with his jacket on, and Beth had grinned at him; her blue eyes sparkled with such a simple joy at being a young girl once again.

Beth sighed as she pulled open the door to the living area; the place where almost everyone gathered together at the end of the day. She was tired, even though she felt much better, and she was still slightly embarrassed about Daryl finding her in the bath. She knew that if they got married—"when," she corrected herself—that he would probably see her naked at least once. She hoped that he would see her naked far more often than once, though. It just made her nervous to think about it; it also made her feel eager, and hopeful for their future.

After Daryl had left, Beth quickly finished up in the bath. She climbed out, dried off, and changed into her clean clothes. She sat in her bedroom for a while; she let her body warm up from the cold air on her walk back to her room, and she brushed her hair until it dried in soft waves around her shoulders. She smelled of burnt wood from sitting next to the stove, but she knew that it was one of the more pleasant odors that she could smell like; it wasn't guts, gore, or stale sweat.

The living room was thankfully warm, and surprisingly empty. Bob, Hattie, and Eugene sat around a table discussing plans on a sheet of paper, and Rick cuddled with Judith on a couch. Carl and Hector played a game of checkers, and Daryl sat wrapped up in a plush arm chair with a book in his lap, and a vacant stare on his face as he gazed at the words on the page. Beth could tell that he was thinking, and not actually reading.

"Hey, Beth." Rick said with a smile, as he shifted Judith onto his hip, and he came to meet her for a hug. Beth smiled, and leaned into his side. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." She nodded.

"You're looking better." Rick agreed; he looked over at the scientist and medics who had all taken an interest in Beth since she walked into the family room. He knew that they were all curious about the illness she had suffered, and wondered why she hadn't turned when her blood mixed with the walker's blood. He had collected a list from them about the items that they would need, and the three were planning on going on a run with Daryl, Rick, and Michonne in the next few days to get the supplies that they would need from the local University.

"Yeah, you look a lot better, Beth." Carl said with a smile, but frowned quickly when Hector jumped two of his checkers and loudly exclaimed that he needed to be 'kinged'. Carl swore, and looked at his dad apologetically. Rick shook his head, but didn't say anything to the young man.

Judith reached out for Beth with a coo. Beth took her from Rick and held her close. "Let me know if you get tired." Rick said, letting Beth take the infant from him. She nodded, but didn't let him know that she was already tired. She wanted time with the little girl she loved like her own.

She walked over to Daryl, who had finally looked up from his book and was watching her. She sat on the arm of the chair that he was in, and he smiled and grabbed at Judith's foot. Judith squealed in delight, and reached over to mouth a slobbery kiss on his cheek. Judith loved Daryl, and Daryl loved the little girl. He grabbed Judith and plopped her on his knee. She reached for the book he held, and Daryl watched as she touched the pages. Beth reached a hand out and rubbed his back gently.

"You looked focused," She said softly. She wanted to make sure no one else could overhear their conversation. "Is everything alright?"

"Mmm?" Daryl hummed in confusion. He hadn't realized that he had been so deep in thought that it had been obvious to others. "Mm-hm. Ever'thing's fine." Daryl leaned over into Beth's leg; his shoulder fit into her waist. Beth leaned into him as well. Judith brought Daryl's book to her mouth, and Daryl gently pulled it away. He smirked as the little girl tried again to mouth the book.

Beth was content to allow the older man time to hold the little girl. She knew that Daryl rarely picked her up of his own volition, and instead observed her over other people's shoulders. He had been the first to feed her, no one wanted to take that opportunity from the man who saved her, but since that moment, Daryl would allow others to hold her first. He had excuses; he was dirty, or he was getting ready to run out for a hunt, or for supplies.

"Did you ever think of having your own kids, Daryl?" Carl asked. He had been watching Daryl with his little sister, and he knew what an amazing dad Daryl would be based on his own experiences with the older man.

"Nah. Didn't think about it much. I didn't wanna be the kind of father my dad was; didn't wanna hurt anyone." Beth put a hand on his forearm, and he looked up at her with a smile. She wanted to tell him that someday he would make a wonderful father.

"What about you, Beth?" Hector asked with a smirk. Everyone knew that Beth and Daryl felt more for each other than friendship, but no one had said anything yet. Beth blushed, and glared lightly at the teen.

"I dunno. I guess. I mean, I wanted to be a mom when I was a kid, more than anything else, but now…" Beth shrugged. "It's just a little more difficult now. I'm happy takin' care of Judith, and maybe that'll be enough."

The group in the living room nodded as the door creaked and Sasha and Tyreese entered.

"Beth! You're awake!" Sasha said happily. She came over and gave the younger woman a firm hug, and Tyreese came up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Daryl," the large man nodded in greeting. Daryl nodded back. "Was everything okay this morning? You seemed out of it."

Daryl's shoulders inched their way toward his ears, and his body tensed against Beth. His fingers gripped the book that Judith was still trying to put into his mouth, and Beth could see his knuckles whiten. Beth studied his face; his nostrils flared, and his cheeks reddened. Beth wondered if he was embarrassed about running into her in the bathroom.

"How so?" Sasha asked her brother.

Tyreese shrugged, "Just a lot more in his own head than usual. Somethin' happen?"

Glenn and Maggie chose that moment to walk in, and Glenn loudly asked the room, "What happened?" He had only heard Tyreese ask Daryl what had happened.

Daryl shook his head violently, "Nuthin' happened." Everyone trained their eyes on Daryl. The group table; Eugene, Hattie, and Bob sat back in their seats to hear the conversation. Carl and Hector paused their game of checkers. Carl's hand hovered above the board. Rick looked up from cleaning his gun, and studied the man he considered his brother.

"When?" Glenn asked.

Daryl stood and handed Beth the baby, "Nuthin' happened, okay?" Daryl brushed past Glenn with more force than usual, and their shoulders collided as Daryl stormed out the door.

"Somethin' happened." Bob said from his chair at the table.

Beth frowned and stood from her seat on the arm of Daryl's chair. She handed Judith to Rick and pulled Maggie out the door of the living room. Glenn predictably followed.

"Glenn, go check on him?" Maggie suggested. She knew that her sister needed to talk to her. Glenn nodded and followed the older man's leather wings, and the orange glow of a cigarette tip.

Beth pulled her sister into her bedroom after she made sure Carol wasn't there. She shut the door and sat down with her sister on her bed. Beth grabbed Maggie's hands, and looked up at her older sister with a frown.

"Daryl walked in on me in the bath this morning." Beth's cheeks were red, and she had a look of uncertainty on her face.

Maggie could tell that Beth was embarrassed. "Okay. And you think that he was upset about that?"

"Not upset." Beth sighed, and shrugged. "I want him to want me, you know. And he wouldn't look at me the entire time."

"Good." Maggie said with a laugh. "I would have skinned him alive if he had looked at you like that without a ring on your finger."

"You and Glenn weren't married."

"Yeah, but I'm not my own baby sister." Maggie smirked and ruffled Beth's hair. "So, what exactly is going on between the both of you?"

Beth told her everything.

Glenn slowly approached Daryl, and he cleared his throat to announce his presence. "What do you want, Jackie Chan?"

Daryl took a drag off his cigarette, and blew the pale smoke away from Glenn. The older man was sitting on the drawbridge just outside the entrance to the fort. He flicked his ash into the moat, and watched the fish, who thought it was food, jump to the surface of the water and make ripples with their backs.

"Chinese." Glenn smiled, "You'll get it one of these days." He sat next to Daryl, and let his feet dangle in toward the water. They were a few feet above surface of the moat, and Glenn wondered if the alligator ever jumped up to bite someone's foot. He nearly drew his feet up under him, but the older hunter sat with his boots hanging near the water as well, and he didn't want to appear frightened at the thought of a reptile eating his shoes.

"So, you gonna ask me what's wrong or what?" Daryl said. He spit into the moat as he tried to clear the smoky taste from his mouth.

"I was hoping you'd kind of just tell me, but I know that's never going to happen. Beth seemed concerned. She dragged Maggie into her bedroom and they told me to come figure out what was wrong. Maggie told me about your conversation, but it seems like something else happened."

Daryl let out a low curse and ran his hands through his hair. The fingers that held his cigarette stayed up and out of his hair. "Figured she'd know it's about her."

"It is about her?" Daryl shrugged and looked over at Glenn.

"Kinda. And me too." Daryl took another puff of his cigarette and flicked the ashes again. "I walked in on her in the bath."

"Okay, well… that happens?" Glenn said with confusion in his voice. He wasn't sure why Daryl was so upset by it.

"She wasn't bathing." Daryl said, glancing at Glenn out of the corner of his eye.

"What was she…. Oh." Glenn paused, realization coming to him about what Beth might be doing in the bath that wasn't bathing. "So you, uh, saw her… uh, diddling her skittle." Daryl made a face, "Stroking the kitty. Teasing the taco."

Daryl wrinkled his nose and shoved Glenn lightly. "Stop." He shook his head trying to get the idea of those words out of his head. "I didn't see her, I just heard more than I should have."

"She's a moaner then?" Glenn asked and then he felt horrified. "God, I don't want to know. She's basically my sister."

Daryl looked at him and nodded. His face had gone a little pale, and nerves were bubbling up in his stomach.

"Okay, so, what's the issue? You saw—heard—her masturbate. It's not a big deal. Surely, you've seen a woman masturbate before."

Daryl kept looking at Glenn without nodding in agreement, or shaking his head disagreeing. Glenn frowned at him. "You've never seen a woman…" He shrugged, "Okay, well. I guess that's not the important part. You have done the important part right?"

"'course." Daryl said gruffly, "A couple times."

"A… Jesus, Daryl. Really?" Glenn was astonished. "Okay. How does that even happen? I mean, you're a good looking guy, and you're what? Forty? You've must have had more opportunity than just a couple times."

"Shut up, asshole." Daryl said without venom. "You tell anyone, I'll castrate you."

"Fine, they won't hear it from me." Glenn put his hands up in the air, and leaned back. "So, why are you upset about this?"

Daryl was silent, and he swung his foot back in forth in an attempt to skim the surface of the water. After several moments, Daryl quietly asked, "What if she don't think I'm any good at it? Fuck, I can't even kiss her right."

Glenn really felt for the older man. Over the course of the last couple years, Daryl had become one of Glenn's best friends. He knew that he and Rick shared a more familiar bond, but he and Glenn had a different sort of friendship. At twenty-six, Glenn found himself close to a man almost twice his age. He had no idea how old Daryl actually was, or when his birthdate was, but everyone agreed that it didn't matter anymore. Age didn't matter; it was all about experience.

Daryl was experienced in everything, it seemed, except for love. Luckily, Glenn had plenty of experience with the other Greene girl, and he had plenty of advice for the older man.

* * *

**I don't know if I'm happy with this chapter or not. I'm just happy t** **hat it is finally finished.**

**I apologize profusely for my lack of updates for the last few weeks. Several things have happened in my life, and I'm finally able to sit down and write again. Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that this is a good update, but it is an update. I hope you guys enjoyed it at least a little bit.**

**I try to update BeautifulHereBethyl on Tumblr whenever things happen and I won't be able to get any writing done, just in case you are interested.**

**Thanks for reading everyone,**

**LHB**


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